If your organization receives HHS funding or is part of state or local government, your website has a federal accessibility standard to meet: WCAG 2.1 Level AA. In the spring of 2026, both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services pushed their compliance deadlines back by one year. That extra time is welcome, but the requirement itself did not change.
The deadlines at a glance
ADA Title II: larger governments
State and local governments serving 50,000 or more people must comply by April 26, 2027.
HHS Section 504: larger recipients
Organizations receiving HHS funding with 15 or more employees, including community health centers, must comply by May 11, 2027.
Smaller entities
Smaller governments and special districts have until April 26, 2028. HHS recipients with fewer than 15 employees follow in May 2028.
The Justice Department published its extension on April 20, 2026, and HHS issued its own on May 7, 2026, partly to keep the two rules in step. The HHS rule covers more than websites. It also applies to mobile apps and certain kiosks used by people accessing health care or social services.
What WCAG 2.1 AA means in practice
WCAG 2.1 AA is a set of testable guidelines that make a website usable for people with disabilities. In real terms, it means things like:
- Text and buttons with enough color contrast to read easily
- A site that works completely with a keyboard, with a visible focus indicator
- Descriptive alt text for meaningful images
- Labels on every form field and clear error messages
- A logical heading structure that screen readers can follow
- Links and buttons that say where they go or what they do
- Pages that can be zoomed without breaking
Our remediation work
Over the past year we have helped several Florida health care organizations bring their websites up to WCAG 2.1 AA, including Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida, First Choice Kidcare and the Florida Association of Community Health Centers.
Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida and First Choice Kidcare
Family Health Centers serves families across Lee, Charlotte and Hendry counties, and First Choice Kidcare is its pediatric care website. We audited both sites, fixed issues at the source in the theme and content, and verified the results. Both sites now score 100 out of 100 for accessibility in Google Lighthouse.
fhcswfl.org
firstchoicekidcare.org
Florida Association of Community Health Centers
FACHC represents 54 health centers that serve patients in all 67 Florida counties at more than 800 locations, so its website sets an example for the whole network. We ran automated and manual audits across the homepage and key pages, then worked through a shared issue log item by item. Many problems turned out to be sitewide template issues, which meant one fix could clear the same error on every page.
fachc.org
What we fixed for FACHC
- Missing form labels on search and filter fields
- Icon links and buttons with no accessible name
- Linked images without alt text
- Low-contrast text in menus, tables and plugin output
- Heading order on tabbed and accordion content
- Job board filters and forms that screen readers could not follow
- Carousel controls with broken ARIA references
- Annual reports in a flipbook viewer, now with accessible PDF links
Every one of the 35 tracked items on the FACHC issue log was fixed and verified, and we documented the work in a compliance report.
Why overlay widgets are not enough
Accessibility toolbar plugins promise instant compliance, but they do not change the underlying code, and many screen reader users find them harder to use. Real compliance means fixing the website itself. That is the only approach we take.
How we work
1. Audit
Automated testing with Lighthouse, WAVE and axe, plus manual keyboard and screen reader checks on your key templates.
2. Remediate
We fix contrast, headings, alt text, labels, focus states, menus, carousels and plugin output at the source.
3. Document
You receive an issue log, before and after results, a compliance report and an accessibility statement for your site.
Sources
- EDUCAUSE Review, DOJ and HHS extend web accessibility deadlines to 2027 and 2028
- Feldesman, HHS extends compliance deadlines for web and mobile accessibility requirements
- UNC School of Government, deadlines to comply with ADA web accessibility requirements extended by one year
- WebAIM, An extension is not an excuse