Is Saratoga'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 Saratoga'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.
Has Saratoga's website been checked yet?
We haven't published an accessibility scan for Saratoga yet. Run one now — we'll crawl the site, test every page against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, score reading level, inventory PDFs, and flag any citizen service that residents with disabilities can't reach.
What WCAG 2.1 Level AA means for town government websites
With 1,760 residents, Saratoga 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 utility bill payment, permit applications, and public meeting agendas all need to work for residents with disabilities.
Saratoga is a small 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 Saratoga's website continuously and sends a plain-English weekly digest — no technical background needed.