Guest Post: How Changes to ADA Title II Impact Libraries – And What We Can Do to Respond
On April 24, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued its final rule, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities. This matters to all libraries because the rule revises the regulation implementing Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to require state and local government entities to follow standards when they provide services to the public through the web and mobile applications.
The final rule issued by the DOJ on April 24, 2024 covers public entities (private entities are covered by ADA’s Title III). While the rule took effect on June 24, 2024, public entities of 50,000 or more people are required to comply by April 24, 2026, and public entities of less than 50,000 people are required to comply by April 26, 2027. Expectations for accessible web and mobile content align with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) international standard, specifically, Standard 2.1. Given this news, let’s take a look at the final rule from the perspectives of vendors, libraries, and law firms, what libraries are doing to comply, and then consider what will happen regarding the rule in the future.