The U.S. Department of Justice has extended the deadline for K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and other public institutions to comply with a new regulation that requires them to make digital content accessible to people with disabilities. The extension – outlined in an “interim final rule” the DOJ issued on April 20 – came just days ahead of the April 26 deadline for state and local government entities with a total population of 50,000 or more.
The new deadline is April 26, 2027 for those entities. The new compliance date for those with a total population of 50,000 or less has also been extended by a year – from April 26, 2027 to April 26, 2028.
In explaining the rationale behind its decision, the DOJ stated that it determined the deadlines would have been “infeasible and unfair” because technology – including generative AI – is not yet capable of reliably making materials accessible. The DOJ stated further that affected entities need more time to do the work necessary – much of it manual – to make their digital materials accessible and not run the risk of getting sued for lack of compliance.
The bigger picture:
The decision has drawn the ire of disability advocacy groups, who told the DOJ they’ve waited long enough and that “any action to delay or rescind the 2024 final rule would severely harm individuals with disabilities.” They also don’t buy the argument that the current state of technology isn’t sophisticated enough to achieve compliance and told the DOJ that “even the most complex and innovative learning technologies can be made accessible.”
The federal effort to require public entities to make digital materials accessible to people with disabilities has been in the works for well over a decade. In 2010, the DOJ published an advanced notice of a proposed rule that addressed web accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The DOJ says it “overestimated the capabilities (whether staffing or technology) of covered entities to comply with the rule in the time frames provided.”
But consensus on how and when to actually implement the rule was elusive. Some stakeholders suggested deadlines for compliance be well into the future. Now that the future has arrived, disability advocacy groups are crying foul. They say the postponement has real consequences for students with disabilities, particularly those who are pursuing college degrees.
“When information is not accessible, blind students are excluded from the same curricula as their peers, face delays in completing coursework and degrees, and encounter unnecessary barriers to entering the workforce and participating fully in society,” the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind said in a statement.
In addition to giving public entities more time to make their digital materials accessible, the DOJ has stated that the delayed deadline will allow public institutions to avoid costly and time-consuming and costly lawsuits and instead “specifically focus on compliance efforts.” Doing so, the DOJ says, “will ultimately lead to greater accessibility for individuals with disabilities because more time and resources will be devoted directly to compliance.”
