The U.S. Department of Justice's new Title II rule on web content accessibility will require school districts and ed tech companies to spend a considerable amount of time and money to come into compliance, according to a recent whitepaper from the Software and Information Industry Association.
SIIA, which represents the software and digital content industry, said DOJ's estimates to conform to the new requirements are $1.134 billion for K-12 classroom courses and $5.5 billion for postsecondary courses.
Additionally, it is anticipated that $113.8 million will be needed to remediate existing third-party websites for school districts and $93.6 million for higher education.
"Vendors providing services to state and local government entities should be ready as the compliance dates come near," the paper said.
The rule goes into effect June 24, but governments and public institutions, including public schools and universities, have two or three years to comply, depending on their population size within a state or local jurisdiction.
For K-12 schools, this means that if a school district is located in a county or city with a population of 50,000 or more, it must comply by April 24, 2026. Public state universities would also have an April 24, 2026, compliance deadline, as they are considered a state entity.
However, a county community college or K-12 school district in the same state located in a county or city with 49,999 or fewer residents would have a later compliance deadline of April 26, 2027.
The DOJ rule is requiring public entities, such as school districts, to use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA, as the technical standard for compliance.
This will help ensure websites, mobile apps and digital textbooks contain accessible text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations and more, the rule said. The rule also applies to social media postings.
Accessibility features could include web content that supports keyboard alternatives for mouse commands for those with limited manual dexterity or text that can be resized for those with vision impairments.
There are some exceptions, such as social media postings that existed before the compliance date, as well as content posted to a government site or mobile app by third parties, unless those contributors have a contract, license or arrangement to post to government websites.
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