Is your government agency‘s digital content accessible to everyone you serve, in every language you offer? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. But you are running out of time to find out.
Starting April 24, 2026, state and local governments in cities with populations of 50,000 or more must meet updated federal web accessibility standards under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If your agency serves a smaller population or operates as a special district, the deadline is one year later, on April 26, 2027.
That’s not a lot of time, and the scope of this mandate is broader than many agencies expect. These regulations cover almost anything your agency provides digitally. And they apply across languages, too.
For agencies already stretched thin, compliance can be daunting. This guide breaks down what the DOJ rule requires, which content types are easy to overlook, and how to approach digital ADA compliance in a way that serves both your legal obligations and the communities that depend on you.
The 2024 ADA Requirements and What’s Changing
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) finalized a rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that requires state and local governments to make their digital content accessible to people with disabilities. Compliance now has a clear benchmark: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA.
Here’s the catch: The requirements don’t stop at your homepage. Covered content includes all your public-facing web pages, mobile apps, online forms, downloadable PDFs, and multimedia such as videos.
For many agencies, this represents a significant shift. The 2025 WebAIM Million report found that 94.8% of websites, across sectors, have detectable accessibility failures. Government homepages had an average of 37.2 errors per page.
Breaking Down WCAG 2.1 Level AA Requirements
WCAG is short for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It is an international standard maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and organized around four principles: content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. You may see this referred to as “POUR.”
In practice, this means your digital content must be usable by people who rely on screen readers, navigate by keyboard only, need captions to understand video, have low vision, or depend on structured navigation to move through a page.
In practical terms, WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance includes requirements like these:
- Text must have enough color contrast against its background for people with low vision to read it.
- Images need meaningful alternative text, not just SEO keywords.
- Videos require accurate captions.
- Forms must have properly labeled fields and clear error messages.
- Pages need a logical heading structure and consistent navigation.
- Content must remain functional when text is resized or viewed on smaller screens.
- Interactive elements must be reachable and usable by keyboard alone.
The standard is detailed, but the goal is straightforward: everyone who needs to access your site needs to be able to do so.
Accessibility Applies to All Languages
This is where compliance risks can really sneak up on you.
Accessibility requirements don’t stop at English. Government agencies may offer translated content to comply with regulations like Title VI of the Civil Rights Act or local laws that require language access. But if you’re not careful, translated versions may not work properly for people who use screen readers or other assistive tools.
And that’s a problem, because every language version of your website must comply with the new accessibility standards. The same applies to your translated PDFs, online forms, mobile apps, and multimedia content.
Here are the most common problem areas we see when accessibility and language access intersect:
Translated PDFs
An accessible English PDF can become inaccessible once translated if certain details aren’t preserved.
Accessible PDFs rely on tags, reading order, and document structure. During translation, these elements can be stripped out or rearranged. Headings may lose their hierarchy, leaving screen readers unable to follow the document and causing them to read it out of order. This is a poor experience for people who rely on screen readers, and it also makes it difficult for them to understand what they’re hearing.
Language metadata, which tells assistive technology how to pronounce words, may be missing or set to the wrong language, causing a screen reader to mispronounce the entire document.
Multilingual Website Content
Text expansion is a common issue in website translation. Many languages require more space than English to convey the same meaning—Spanish text, for example, often runs 15–30% longer.
When translated content is added to a content management system (CMS), it can push layouts out of alignment, cause buttons or navigation elements to overlap, or force text into areas where it becomes difficult to read. These changes may seem cosmetic, but they can create real usability problems for people who rely on screen magnification or structured navigation to move through a page.
Translated Forms
Accessible forms depend on labels being properly connected to input fields. When forms are translated, those connections can be lost if the process is not handled carefully.
The result: a user relying on a screen reader hears a label read aloud but has no way to know which field it belongs to. Or a required field is not announced as required, leading to repeated errors. A form that works perfectly in English may become frustrating or impossible to complete in another language—not because of the translation itself, but because the underlying structure was not maintained.
Translated Alt Text
Users who rely on screen readers depend on alt text to understand what an image conveys. That means alternative text for images must be translated correctly.
This step is often overlooked. Alt text may be left in English or translated so literally that it loses clarity. For images that convey data, such as charts or infographics, the alt text must describe the content in a way that makes sense to someone reading in the target language. If it doesn’t, users who rely on screen readers are left without the information the image was meant to provide.
Localized Captions and Subtitles
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, captions are not a convenience—they’re the primary way of understanding spoken content.
So translated captions and subtitles must remain accurate, properly timed, and synchronized with the video. If the timing isn’t right, users could see text that no longer matches what is being said, or captions that disappear before they can be read. Poorly translated or mistimed subtitles don’t just reduce quality. They create a barrier.
The common thread: accessibility is not only about the original content. It’s about what happens to that content throughout its lifecycle—including translation. If your workflow does not account for accessibility at every stage and in every language, compliant content can become noncompliant before it ever reaches the people it was designed to serve.
What Agencies Should Do Now
The compliance deadlines are closing, but there is still time to act. Agencies that start now rather than waiting until the last minute will be better positioned to meet requirements without rushing through remediation.
- Conduct an accessibility audit. A thorough audit of your digital content—including your multilingual pages, documents, and multimedia—will help you identify gaps and prioritize what needs attention first. Focus on high-traffic and essential content, such as service pages, forms, and public-facing videos.
- Review legacy content. Older PDFs, archived forms, and outdated web pages can be easy to overlook. If this content is still publicly available on your website, it likely falls under the rule. Decide what needs to be remediated, what can be removed, and what requires a fresh approach.
- Examine your multilingual workflows. Consider how translated content is created, formatted, and published. Are accessibility requirements part of that process, or are they addressed separately—if at all? Agencies that treat accessibility and language access as connected workstreams will have fewer surprises down the road.
- Strengthen vendor requirements. If you work with outside vendors for translation, web development, or multimedia production, make sure your contracts and RFPs reflect your accessibility obligations. Vendors should understand WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements and be able to demonstrate how their work supports compliance—not creates new risks. At BIG Language Solutions, we work with government agencies on accessibility and multilingual communications, so we understand what it takes to meet these requirements in practice.
- Plan for ongoing work. As you add new content, update existing pages, or publish translated materials, you will need processes in place to maintain accessibility over time.
The government agencies that approach this proactively, not reactively, will be in the strongest position when deadlines arrive.
Moving Forward
Accessibility in digital content is a legal requirement, but it’s also an opportunity. Agencies that meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards make it easier for every member of the community to access the services and information they need. Clear, usable digital content strengthens public trust and improves outcomes for the people you serve.
The key is to treat language access and digital accessibility as connected, not as unrelated workstreams. When multilingual content is built with accessibility in mind from the start, you reduce the risk of costly remediation later. When it is not, you may find yourself fixing problems you did not know you had.
That is where working with a language services partner who understands both accessibility and translation matters.
BIG Language Solutions has decades of experience supporting government agencies with translation, interpretation, and accessible content. We understand the compliance pressures public sector organizations face, and we know how to preserve accessibility throughout the localization process, so your multilingual content meets the same standards as your English-language materials.
If your agency is preparing for the 2026 or 2027 deadlines and wants to make sure your multilingual content is part of your accessibility strategy, we can help.
Connect with us to explore how BIG Language Solutions can help you meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements across every language you offer.
