Is Golden's Website Ready for the ADA Title II Deadline?
Did you know the deadline already changed?
The deadline you may have written down last year is no longer the right one. A DOJ Interim Final Rule issued April 20, 2026 extended the original ADA Title II dates by one year, so Golden now has until April 26, 2028. That extra year is exactly the window to find and fix problems before enforcement begins — the DOJ has given no signal that the date will move again.
Golden's latest accessibility scan
Overall compliance risk: Moderate — 13 PDFs fail basic accessibility checks
Top issues, in plain English
- critical Composite controls are missing required child elements for assistive tech (WCAG 1.3.1 · 1 page)
- serious Pages don't declare their language, which confuses screen readers (WCAG 3.1.1 · 85 pages)
- serious Text is too low-contrast against its background to read comfortably (WCAG 1.4.3 · 5 pages)
- serious Lists are marked up incorrectly, so screen readers misread their structure (WCAG 1.3.1 · 3 pages)
- serious List items sit outside a proper list, so screen readers misread them (WCAG 1.3.1 · 3 pages)
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What WCAG 2.1 Level AA means for city government websites
With 20,151 residents, Golden falls under the DOJ's small-entity tier (under 50,000 population), which comes with the later of the two federal deadlines — but the same technical standard.
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the technical standard the DOJ adopted for ADA Title II. In plain terms, it's a checklist that makes sure residents who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or captions can actually use your website: text on every image, labels on every form field, enough color contrast to read, and video captions.
Smaller entities sometimes assume they're exempt. They aren't — the later deadline is the only accommodation the rule makes for size. Services like utility bill payment, permit applications, and public meeting agendas all need to work for residents with disabilities.
Golden is a mid-size community, and its website is the front door for utility bill payment, permit applications, and public meeting agendas. 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 Golden's website continuously and sends a plain-English weekly digest — no technical background needed.