ADA Title II Web Accessibility: Planning for Public Colleges
Illustrative article artwork, not measured results.
Confirm the current deadline
The Department of Justice extended the web and mobile accessibility rule deadlines in April 2026. Public entities with a population of 50,000 or more have an April 26, 2027 compliance date. Those below 50,000 and special district governments have an April 26, 2028 date.
Student enrollment does not determine the population category. Confirm your institution’s governing entity and applicable deadline with its accessibility and legal teams. See the DOJ’s current implementation guidance.
Start with a useful inventory
List your public website, department sites, documents, forms, videos, and connected applications. Record who owns each area and who can make changes. Prioritize essential journeys such as finding a program, requesting information, and accessing financial aid information.
A page inventory helps turn a broad concern into work that can be assigned. Include third-party systems in the discussion so responsibilities are clear before remediation begins.
Combine automated checks with human review
Automated tools can help locate issues and organize findings. They cannot establish complete accessibility conformance. Include keyboard testing, assistive technology review, and evaluation of content and user journeys in the agreed scope.
Keep a record of the issue, affected pages, assigned owner, remediation, and verification. A scan score is a tool-specific indicator, not a legal certification.
Separate monitoring from remediation
College Inbound’s accessibility services provide scoped review and hands-on remediation. GuardGrid is a separate platform and subscription that helps organize web governance findings and reporting.
Monitoring identifies work to investigate. Developers, editors, and other responsible teams still need to resolve and verify issues.
Plan the next step
Choose a representative set of pages and critical tasks, agree on responsibilities, and establish a repeatable review process. Include accessibility checks in publishing and future website changes.
Talk with us about your college’s website to discuss the scope of an accessibility engagement. This article provides planning information, not an institution-specific legal determination.