In June 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) finalized an update to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II regulations. The update requires public entities to ensure that any web content and mobile apps they provide or make available are accessible to specific technical standards. Public colleges and universities have (or are creating) local compliance plans, fact sheets, and checklists for campus-wide efforts. The documents below take different approaches because local guidelines will fulfill most generalized needs.

Summary

The summary document (a four-page Google Doc) summarizes the DOJ’s 2024 revision to the ADA Title II regulations and highlights sections that are especially relevant to academic libraries. The document includes the final rule’s background and core premise, requirements, definitions, exceptions, additional compliance guidelines, and library-specific responses from the DOJ’s section-by-section analysis and response to public comments.

Considerations

The considerations document (a nine-page Google Doc) explores proposed connections and questions to consider for some of the more complex or situational aspects of digital accessibility for web content and mobile apps provided by academic libraries. The questions are organized in three sections (organizational commitments, contextualizing content, and cooperative relationships), which offer perspectives to identify how a library’s local contexts align with the updated regulations. Because the questions cross multiple areas of library work, responses will likely be contributed by multiple library workers. (Includes a list of selected resources.)