Is Emery'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 Emery's date is now April 26, 2028. A one-time extension is a grace period, not a reprieve. There is no indication another one is coming.
Emery'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 8 serious accessibility checks — including: elements are missing the parent context assistive technology expects. Residents using assistive technology may be unable to complete it.
Top issues, in plain English
- critical Elements are missing the parent context assistive technology expects (WCAG 1.3.1 · 14 pages)
- critical Buttons have no accessible name — assistive tech users can't tell what they do (WCAG 4.1.2 · 2 pages)
- critical Images have no text alternative, so screen readers can't describe them (WCAG 1.1.1 · 2 pages)
- critical Form fields have no label — users can't tell what to type in them (WCAG 4.1.2 · 1 page)
- serious ARIA commands must have an accessible name (WCAG 4.1.2 · 14 pages)
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What WCAG 2.1 Level AA means for town government websites
With 317 residents, Emery 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.
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?
Smaller entities sometimes assume they're exempt. They aren't — the later deadline is the only accommodation the rule makes for size. Services like recreation registration, utility billing, and building permits all need to work for residents with disabilities.
Emery is a small community, and its website is the front door for recreation registration, utility billing, and building permits. 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 Emery's website continuously and sends a plain-English weekly digest — no technical background needed.