ADA Title II: what the DOJ web accessibility rule means for PDFs

The rule in brief

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) added subpart H, "Web and Mobile Accessibility", to its Title II regulation in 28 CFR part 35 (final rule of April 24, 2024, 89 FR 31320, effective June 24, 2024). Under § 35.200(a), a public entity must make the web content and mobile apps it provides, "directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements", readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.

The technical standard is set in § 35.200(b): web content and mobile apps must meet the Level A and Level AA success criteria and conformance requirements of WCAG 2.1 (W3C Recommendation of June 5, 2018), which the rule incorporates by reference. WCAG 2.2 is not the legal standard under this rule.

Who is covered

Subpart H applies to every public entity under Title II. § 35.104 defines a public entity as any State or local government; any department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or local government; and Amtrak and commuter authorities. The DOJ fact sheet on ada.gov names, among others, public schools, community colleges and public universities, public hospitals and clinics, and public transit agencies as examples.

The deadline depends on the total population under § 35.104: for most governments the latest decennial Census figure, for independent school districts the Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. An instrumentality without its own figure, such as a state university, uses the combined population of the governments it belongs to.

A special district government is a public entity other than a county, municipality, township or independent school district that State law authorizes to provide one or a few designated functions as a separate government, and whose population the Census Bureau does not calculate. According to the DOJ fact sheet, a school district is not a special district government.

Compliance dates

The DOJ moved both dates by one year through an interim final rule published on April 20, 2026 (document 2026-07663, 91 FR 20902), effective the same day, with public comments accepted until June 22, 2026. The interim rule changes only the dates. The standard, the definitions and the exceptions stayed the same.

The DOJ also announced that it "will consider issuing an NPRM" on the substance of the 2024 rule. As of November 8, 2026, we found no such proposal and no further change to the dates in the Federal Register. The DOJ stressed that the general Title II duty to make services offered online accessible continues regardless of the compliance dates.

PDFs are web content

§ 35.104 lists conventional electronic documents as an example of web content and defines them as web content or content in mobile apps in PDF, word processor, presentation or spreadsheet file formats. A PDF on a public entity's website or in its app must therefore meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA unless an exception applies.

Exceptions relevant to PDFs

§ 35.201 lists five exceptions. The wording below follows the regulation text:

• Archived web content as defined in § 35.104: web content that (1) was created before the compliance date, or reproduces paper documents or the contents of other physical media created before that date; (2) is retained exclusively for reference, research, or recordkeeping; (3) is not altered or updated after the date of archiving; and (4) is organized and stored in a dedicated area or areas clearly identified as being archived.
• Preexisting conventional electronic documents: documents available as part of the web content or mobile apps before the entity's compliance date, "unless such documents are currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in the public entity's services, programs, or activities."
• Content posted by a third party, "unless the third party is posting due to contractual, licensing, or other arrangements with the public entity."
• Individualized, password-protected or otherwise secured conventional electronic documents: documents that are about a specific individual, their property, or their account, and that are password-protected or otherwise secured.
• Preexisting social media posts: posts made before the entity's compliance date.

Examples from the DOJ fact sheet: a PDF flyer for a 2018 parade on a town website would probably fall under the preexisting-documents exception, but an older PDF that people still use to apply for a business license would not. City council minutes created after the compliance date are not archived content, even if they are posted in an archive section. A PDF water bill in a resident's secure account would probably fall under the individualized-documents exception.

Conforming alternate versions are allowed only where direct accessibility is not possible "due to technical or legal limitations" (§ 35.202). An entity claiming fundamental alteration or undue burdens carries the burden of proof and needs a written statement of reasons from its head or a designee (§ 35.204).

Which PDFs are typically affected

The rule does not list document types. The following is our practical assessment, based on the definitions and the DOJ examples above:

• Application, permit and license forms, including older ones still in use.
• Agendas, minutes, public notices and budget documents published from the compliance date on.
• Course materials at public colleges and universities. The DOJ removed the course-content exceptions of the 2023 proposal from the 2024 final rule, as the 2026 interim rule recalls.
• Documents that contractors or vendors provide for the entity under contractual, licensing, or other arrangements.

WCAG 2.1, PDF/UA and the W3C PDF Techniques

The legal yardstick is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. PDF/UA is the ISO standard for accessible PDF files: ISO 14289-1:2014 (PDF/UA-1, PDF 1.7) and ISO 14289-2:2024 (PDF/UA-2, PDF 2.0). The DOJ rule does not mention it, but it defines how tags, language, alternative text and metadata are stored in the file, which is what assistive technology reads.

The W3C publishes PDF Techniques for WCAG (PDF1 to PDF23), for example PDF1 for alternative text and PDF18 for the document title. According to the W3C, techniques are not required; they document ways to meet WCAG. A file can show no errors in a PDF/UA validator and still fall short of WCAG, for example when alternative text is present but meaningless or the reading order is wrong.

How to check your PDFs

1. Inventory. List the PDFs on your sites and apps with their publication date, and mark those still used to apply for or take part in a service. Move content that meets all four archive conditions into a clearly labeled archive area.
2. Machine check. Check each file against the machine-checkable rules of PDF/UA, for example with our PDF accessibility checker, to find missing tags, title or language.
3. Manual review. Check what software cannot decide: meaningful alternative text, headings and reading order, table headers, form field labels, and contrast under WCAG 1.4.3. Test with a screen reader.
4. Fix at the source. Correct the Word or InDesign file and export again; repairs made only in the PDF are lost at the next export. Keep the check results with the date.

What our checker does and does not do

Our PDF accessibility checker runs the machine-checkable rules of PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2 and lists every finding with the rule, the affected pages and a plain-language explanation. The error pages explain each message and how to fix it in Word, InDesign and Acrobat.

The result reads "X of Y machine-checkable criteria met; manual review needed". It never says that a document meets ADA Title II or WCAG, because no automated tool can confirm that: part of WCAG depends on human judgement. Plan the manual review separately.

If you also serve consumers in Germany or the EU, see our guide to the German Accessibility Act (BFSG).

Does a PDF/UA check without errors mean we meet ADA Title II?

No. The rule requires WCAG 2.1 Level AA. A PDF/UA check covers the machine-checkable part of the file structure. Meaningful alternative text, correct reading order and sufficient contrast still need manual review.

Which date applies to a state university?

A state university is usually an instrumentality of the State. Its total population is then the State's Census population, which in every State exceeds 50,000, so the date would be April 26, 2027. Check the definition in § 35.104 for your own structure.

Does this rule apply to private companies?

Subpart H applies only to public entities under Title II. Private businesses fall under Title III, which this rule does not change. Content that a vendor provides for a public entity under a contract is covered, and the public entity remains responsible for it.