Are states covered by the 2027 date?

Yes. States and their agencies, including public universities that are part of a state, use the state's population, which is over 50,000 in every state.

Did the 2026 extension change what we must do?

No. It changed only the dates. The standard is still WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and the exceptions are the same.

Our county is over 50,000 but a department is small. Which date applies?

Departments and agencies use the population of the larger government they are part of, so the county's date applies.

Guides › Deadlines and law

ADA Title II deadline for governments over 50,000 people: April 26, 2027

Short answer: State and local governments with a total population of 50,000 or more must make their web content and mobile apps, including PDFs posted online, conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA by April 26, 2027. The Department of Justice moved the date from April 24, 2026 in an April 2026 interim final rule.

Who is in the 2027 group

Your compliance date depends on the total population of your state or local government:

50,000 or more: April 26, 2027. This includes all states and state agencies, large counties and cities, and anything that is part of them.
Under 50,000, and all special district governments: April 26, 2028. See the deadline for small cities.

Population generally comes from 2020 U.S. Census data. A city school district uses the city’s population; an independent school district uses the Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. Departments, agencies and public colleges use the population of the government they belong to.

What changed in April 2026

The original 2024 rule set April 24, 2026 for large entities and April 26, 2027 for small ones. On April 20, 2026 the Department of Justice published an interim final rule extending each date by about a year. The extension is a timing change only: the technical standard (WCAG 2.1 AA) and the exceptions did not change.

The general obligation under Title II to give people with disabilities equal access to services already applies, so an inaccessible PDF can still be the subject of a complaint before the date.

Where large entities usually stand with PDFs

Large governments and universities often have tens of thousands of PDFs. The usual approach:

Find the documents in active use. Forms, applications, current policies, fee schedules, agendas and anything people need to get a service. These are not covered by the exception for older documents.
Move reference material to a marked archive. Content kept only for reference, in an archive area, unchanged, can qualify for the archived content exception.
Remediate in volume. Combine automated remediation for simple text documents with manual or vendor remediation for forms and complex layouts.
Stop creating new inaccessible PDFs. Train authors to use headings, alt text and the accessibility checker in Word before exporting, or publish as HTML instead of PDF.

For costs, see PDF remediation cost per page.

Frequently asked questions

Are states covered by the 2027 date?: Yes. States and their agencies, including public universities that are part of a state, use the state's population, which is over 50,000 in every state.
Did the 2026 extension change what we must do?: No. It changed only the dates. The standard is still WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and the exceptions are the same.
Our county is over 50,000 but a department is small. Which date applies?: Departments and agencies use the population of the larger government they are part of, so the county's date applies.