“Once again, the blind have been told to wait to live on equal terms,” O’Connor said. He pointed out that although the standard is recent, international web accessibility standards They have existed since 1999.
The Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) has joined the chorus of rejection of the last minute change. “AHEAD and its members have long anticipated clear and timely guidance that reflects current technologies, instructional models, and student needs,” said Katy Washington, president of AHEAD.
The organization represents disability resource personnel, including ADA coordinators, at colleges and universities. “Postponing these updates slows critical momentum and leaves institutions without the clarity necessary to fully achieve equitable access,” Washington said.
Address the need for clear guidelines
Corbb O’Connor, who is blind, said the delay is not just due to waiting another year for access. “We have been waiting almost 36 years since the law guaranteeing these rights was enacted, which heralded a new era of access.”
He refers to Title II of the ADA, the 1990 law that has long promised accessibility to people with disabilities, including in the digital realm. But before this rule, the ADA did not clearly state what accessibility should look or sound like.
The new regulation, announced in 2024, aimed to change that by pointing institutions to a set of technical guidelines known as WCAG 2.1. Provided a clear checklist of accessibility requirements their web and mobile content needed to meet.
That includes transcriptions of audio clips, captioning videos, and making sure PDFs and other web pages are compatible with screen readers, an assistive technology that blind people use to interpret visual content into audible speech.
“The certainty, clarity and timelines within these regulations have a powerful local impact,” said O’Connor, who is also the father of a blind child. “Within minutes of meeting the principal of my son’s elementary school for the first time, he learned that the deadline was April 24, 2026.”
Jennifer Mathis was at the Justice Department when the original rule was announced and helped craft it. He noted that there have been many previous attempts by the federal government to formalize web accessibility guidelines. And Mathis said that while the need for digital accessibility was strong and clear among people with disabilities, calls for clear guidelines were also coming from public institutions themselves.
“The goal of this particular rule was to create certainty and clarity for everyone,” Mathis said. “Delaying the rules now, after 16 years and an incredibly exhaustive rulemaking process, is simply stupid and cruel.”
In postponing the new requirements, the DOJ cited concerns from higher, primary, and secondary education advocacy groups about the costs and personnel resources needed to meet them.
“Many districts are already struggling financially and operating in an environment where schools are being asked to do more with less,” said Sasha Pudelski of AASA, the Association of School Superintendents, which primarily represents K-12 school superintendents.
AASA was one of the organizations that met with federal government officials to ask for a delay. The organization surveyed its members and found that most districts said they would have difficulty paying compliance costs.
“The scope, pace, and unfunded nature of this requirement reflect a significant disconnect between federal expectations and the fiscal and human capital realities of local school systems,” Pudelski said.
While a federal rule on digital accessibility may not be effective for at least another year, there have been a number either successful legal actions tenure schools and other responsible institutions for equal access to learning materials.
Edited by: Steve Drummond
Design and visual development by: L.A. Johnson
