ADA & Section 508 web accessibility (US)

gavelThe ADA and websites

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990, long before the modern web. Its Title III prohibits discrimination by “places of public accommodation”, and US courts have widely held that this reaches the websites of businesses open to the public. The catch: the ADA itself names no website and sets no explicit technical standard.

To fill that gap, courts, the DOJ and settlement agreements have converged on WCAG 2.0 / 2.1 Level AA as the practical measure of an accessible website. So while there is no statute that says “meet WCAG AA”, that is what compliance looks like in practice for a Title III business. US DOJ

balanceThe volume of lawsuits

Website accessibility litigation in the US is substantial. Thousands of federal cases are filed each year. Exact counts vary by who is measuring and which venues they include, ranging from roughly 2,500 federal-only filings to around 4,000 across all venues in 2024, with a rebound reported in 2025.

Rather than quote one hard number as fact, the safe takeaway is the scale: this is a steady, high-volume area of litigation, much of it targeting businesses whose sites fail common WCAG checks like contrast, alt text and form labels. Fixing those issues is both the compliant and the defensive move.

account_balanceThe DOJ Title II rule (state and local government)

In April 2024, the Department of Justice published a final rule under ADA Title II that, for the first time, sets an explicit web standard for state and local government: their websites and mobile apps must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. DOJ web rule

The compliance deadlines, as extended by one year in April 2026, are:

• 26 April 2027 for public entities serving populations of 50,000 or more.
• 26 April 2028 for entities serving populations under 50,000 and for special district governments.

This rule binds government bodies, not private businesses, but it cements WCAG 2.1 AA as the US reference point. See the deadlines page for how these sit alongside the EU dates.

shopping_bagSection 508 (federal procurement)

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that information and communication technology (ICT) developed, bought, maintained or used by federal agencies be accessible. The 2017 “508 Refresh” aligned it with international standards by incorporating WCAG 2.0 Level AA. US Access Board

Section 508 matters well beyond government walls: any company that wants to sell software, hardware or services to the US federal government has to show its products meet the standard. That is where VPATs come in.

descriptionHow VPATs fit

A VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template), produced by the trade association ITI, is the document a vendor fills in to describe how a product conforms to accessibility standards. A completed VPAT is called an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). Section508.gov

VPATs come in four editions, so a vendor can report against the standard a buyer cares about: WCAG, Section 508, EU (EN 301 549) and INT (a combined, international edition). Procurement teams, especially US public-sector buyers under Section 508 and large enterprises, routinely request one before purchasing. ITI