ADA Website Guidelines
ADA website guidelines are the technical accessibility standards courts, the DOJ, and other federal agencies apply to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act online. The dominant standard is the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at Level AA — codified in 2024 for ADA Title II by 28 C.F.R. § 35.200 and applied in case law for ADA Title III since the 2019 Ninth Circuit ruling in Robles v. Domino's Pizza.
Where to go next
WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the operative standard
50 success criteria across the four POUR principles. The standard the DOJ codified for ADA Title II and courts apply for Title III.
ReadPOUR principles in depth
Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust — the framework WCAG uses to organize every success criterion.
ReadSection 508 vs ADA
Section 508 applies to federal agencies/contractors and references WCAG 2.0 AA. ADA covers private business and state/local government and uses WCAG 2.1 AA.
ReadWCAG and ADA
Why WCAG (a voluntary W3C guideline) became the legal benchmark courts and the DOJ apply to ADA cases.
ReadWCAG version timeline
| Version | Published | AA criteria | Used by |
|---|---|---|---|
| WCAG 2.0 | December 2008 | 38 | Section 508 (federal) |
| WCAG 2.1 | June 2018 | 50 | ADA Title II (DOJ rule), HHS Section 504, EAA (via EN 301 549), most Title III case law |
| WCAG 2.2 | October 2023 | 55 (47 of 2.1 still relevant + 8 net new — three 2.1 SC retired) | Pending bipartisan H.R. 3417 would update Section 508 baseline to WCAG 2.2 |
| WCAG 3.0 | Draft (W3C working group) | — | Not yet adopted by any regulator |
Source: W3C Web Accessibility Initiative; DOJ 2024 final rule (89 Fed. Reg. 31320); U.S. Access Board Section 508 refresh (2018).
FAQ
- What are the ADA guidelines for websites?
- There is no separate set of "ADA web guidelines." The U.S. Department of Justice and federal courts apply the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at Level AA. The DOJ formally codified WCAG 2.1 AA for ADA Title II in 2024. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act references WCAG 2.0 AA. WCAG 2.2 (October 2023) is the current published version and is backwards-compatible with 2.1.
- What is the difference between WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2?
- WCAG 2.0 (2008) is the base — 12 guidelines, 38 success criteria for AA. WCAG 2.1 (2018) added 17 new criteria addressing mobile, low vision, and cognitive disabilities, bringing AA to 50 criteria. WCAG 2.2 (October 2023) added 9 more criteria, mostly around cognitive accessibility and authentication. Each version is a superset — meeting 2.2 AA satisfies 2.0 AA and 2.1 AA.
- What are the four POUR principles?
- POUR is the WCAG organizing framework: Perceivable (information must be presentable so users can perceive it), Operable (UI must be operable — keyboard, time, no triggers, navigable), Understandable (information and operation must be understandable), and Robust (content must be interpretable by current and future user agents including assistive tech).