A University Accessibility Planning Guide for the Extended Title II Dates

A university accessibility programme needs a content inventory, clear ownership and an evidence-based capacity plan. The schedule below is an illustrative 20-week planning framework, not a promise that every institution will achieve conformance within that period.

Confirm scope before setting dates

The DOJ's Title II web rule applies to state and local government entities, including public universities. The April 2026 Interim Final Rule extended compliance dates to April 26, 2027 for public entities with populations of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special district governments. These are population cohorts under the rule, not student-enrollment thresholds. Federal funding alone does not make a private university a Title II public entity; other disability laws may apply.

The technical standard for covered web content and mobile apps is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, subject to the rule's scope, exceptions and provisions. Existing equal-access and effective-communication obligations continue before the new technical compliance dates. Determine the institution's applicable obligations and dates with its responsible team.

Weeks 1–3: inventory and fund the work

Inventory current teaching content, websites, LMS materials and student services. Record owners, formats, usage, source availability and known student barriers. Scans can identify some issues; include manual checks rather than calling a scanner percentage a compliance rate.

Estimate staff capacity and obtain current service quotes. Include faculty review as real work even if it does not create a new invoice. Budget separately for intake, corrections, verification, manual remediation, training and deployment. Do not assume manual work is impossible or automation is the only option.

Weeks 4–6: evaluate a representative pilot

Choose a sample that covers common content and difficult cases, including tables, equations, figures and poor source files. Define acceptance checks, authorization and data handling before processing it.

Aelira Core v0.9.11 is beta. Supported workflows can detect issues, suggest changes and apply eligible partial fixes. Other findings need manual work, and some inputs may not produce a downloadable remediated artifact. Review the actual saved file, its recorded fixes and its unresolved findings. An automated score does not establish WCAG conformance.

Measure which supported changes persist in saved files, which need correction and which inputs return no artifact. Record total processing and review hours against a documented baseline. Do not set an institution-wide yield from a demonstration alone.

Weeks 7–14: expand according to measured capacity

Prioritize active content, consequential student tasks and reported barriers. Route specialist cases to qualified staff and request accessible versions of publisher content. Provide appropriate interim access with disability services while unresolved work is addressed.

Verify any proposed LMS integration in the actual deployment. Do not assume automatic monitoring, replacement of course files or caption workflows exist simply because they appear in a desired rollout plan.

Weeks 15–20: review evidence and remaining work

Train authors to use semantic headings, accessible templates, meaningful descriptions and reviewed captions. Check remediated outputs with applicable automated, manual and assistive-technology checks. Record remaining work, owners and dates. A plan or a high scan score is not a substitute for accessible content.

Report measured workload, verified outcomes, failures, costs and limitations to leadership. Adjust the schedule to evidence rather than declaring completion at week twenty.

Maintain the programme

Make accessibility part of creation, procurement and publication. Monitor changed content and respond to student reports. The self-hosted software is free and open source. Paid services cover support or managed hosting. Operational allowances, provider charges and service commitments depend on the chosen deployment and written terms; free software does not mean unlimited processing or zero operating cost. Use current US pricing or current Australian pricing, and obtain a written pilot quote covering continuation terms.

Further reading

These links provide additional context; each source should be assessed for its own scope.

The April 2026 ADA Deadline Was Extended — What Universities Should Do Now