Library websites and the ADA Title II rule

Public libraries are named on ADA.gov as one of the bodies the Department of Justice's ADA Title II web rule covers. The standard is WCAG 2.1 level AA (WCAG explained). Here's how it applies to a library, and where a small library can start.

Your date

It depends on the population of the government your library belongs to. The dates were moved a year later in April 2026, so slides and guides made before then show the old ones.

City or town library

The city's population. April 26, 2027 if it's 50,000 or more; April 26, 2028 if smaller.

County library

The county's population, with the same two dates.

Library district

If state law sets it up as its own government with one job, it fits ADA.gov's description of a special district government: April 26, 2028. Ask your attorney to confirm.

School library

The school district's date (see school district websites).

State agency or state university library

The state's population, so April 26, 2027. A community college library goes by the city or county it belongs to.

Population means the 2020 Census figure. More on the rule, its exceptions and special districts: the ADA Title II website rule.

What counts

The Texas State Library's March 2026 guidance puts it simply: "if the library uses it to deliver service, assume it belongs in the inventory." That includes:

• The main website: hours, branches, policies, contact details, menus and search.
• The catalog and patron account: logging in, holds and renewals.
• Databases, e-books and research guides.
• Event sign-up, room booking, volunteer forms, fines and fees, and chat.
• Flyers, annual reports, board packets and story time recordings.
• Digital collections, finding aids and online exhibits.
• Your mobile app, if you have one.

Vendor products are still yours

Most of a library's website comes from vendors: the catalog, the e-book platform, the events calendar. ADA.gov says calendars, scheduling tools, maps, reservation systems and payment systems from an outside company "would not fall under the exception because it is posted by the state or local government." Content a vendor posts for you, or a website a company runs for you, counts too.

You can't rebuild a vendor's catalog yourself. What you can do:

• Ask each vendor for its accessibility report (often called a VPAT or ACR) and what it plans to fix, and when.
• Try the product yourself with only the keyboard, and zoomed to 200%.
• Put WCAG 2.1 AA in every new contract and renewal, with a date and a contact for problems.
• Where a product can't be fixed in time, plan another way for a patron to get the same thing, such as a librarian placing the hold by phone or email.

If your library is part of a consortium or a state system that buys the catalog for everyone, ask them what they're doing; you'll get further together.

Digitized collections and archives

Old material in an archive can be exempt, but only under all four of the rule's conditions (see the archive exception). The American Library Association warns that "A digitized archive does not necessarily equal web content that has been archived." If a scanned historic document becomes part of a new online exhibit, or a teacher sets it as required reading, the ALA says it's no longer exempt.

Comments, reviews and posts from patrons don't have to meet the standard, because the public wrote them. The comment form or platform you put on your site does.

Where a small library can start

1. Check your busiest pages. Run Full Check on your home page, your events page and your "get a library card" page. Fix what it finds, worst first.
2. Stop posting flyers as pictures. An event flyer posted as an image says nothing to a screen reader. Put the event details in the page text; Picture Check finds pictures with no description, and the Alt text writer drafts one.
3. Check your colors. Pale text on a colored banner is common on library sites. Color check tells you if it's readable and suggests the nearest color that is.
4. Make policies readable. Borrowing rules, the code of conduct and card sign-up instructions go to everyone. Readability marks long sentences and jargon.
5. Caption story time and program videos before you post them.
6. Write to your vendors with the message below.
7. Add an accessibility page saying how patrons can tell you about a problem. The Accessibility statement generator has a public library option.

PageKiwi checks the pages you point it at, not inside your catalog's logged-in pages or your e-book app. For those, rely on the vendor's report and your own keyboard test.