Is Boulder County's Website Ready for the ADA Title II Deadline?
Did you know the deadline already changed?
Here's something many local officials missed: the original compliance deadline has already moved once. On April 20, 2026, the Department of Justice issued an Interim Final Rule pushing each deadline back a full year — which means Boulder County's date is now April 26, 2027. A one-time extension is a grace period, not a reprieve. There is no indication another one is coming.
Boulder County's latest accessibility scan
Overall compliance risk: High — 1 citizen service residents with disabilities may be unable to use
⚠ Critical Service Risk
These citizen services appear to have no accessible alternative pathway — the highest-exposure findings in this scan:
- Online bill or fee payment — The only pathway we found for this service fails 1 serious accessibility check — including: list items sit outside a proper list, so screen readers misread them. Residents using assistive technology may be unable to complete it.
Top issues, in plain English
- critical Buttons have no accessible name — assistive tech users can't tell what they do (WCAG 4.1.2 · 3 pages)
- critical ARIA accessibility attributes are used incorrectly and may mislead screen readers (WCAG 4.1.2 · 2 pages)
- serious List items sit outside a proper list, so screen readers misread them (WCAG 1.3.1 · 120 pages)
- serious Embedded frames have no title, so screen readers announce them as unnamed (WCAG 4.1.2 · 84 pages)
- serious ARIA attributes must be used as specified for the element's role (WCAG 4.1.2 · 8 pages)
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What WCAG 2.1 Level AA means for county government websites
Because Boulder County serves 330,262 residents — above the DOJ's 50,000-person threshold — it falls in the first enforcement wave, with the earlier of the two federal deadlines.
The rule points to WCAG 2.1 Level AA — a widely used technical checklist. Stripped of jargon, it asks simple questions: can a blind resident using a screen reader pay a bill on your site? Can someone who can't use a mouse complete a form with just a keyboard? Is the text readable against its background?
For first-wave entities, the practical risk isn't only DOJ action — it's private lawsuits and demand letters that cite the federal standard the moment the deadline passes.
Boulder County is a major population center, and its website is the front door for public health services, permits, and assessor records. Under ADA Title II, that front door has to work for every resident.
Don't find out about problems from a demand letter
A11yCheck monitors Boulder County's website continuously and sends a plain-English weekly digest — no technical background needed.