Who It Applies To · Police Departments and Courts
ADA Title II Website Accessibility for Police Departments and Courts
Last updated June 11, 2026
Filing a police report, answering a jury summons, paying a fine, requesting records. These are not optional errands, and for many residents the only door is the digital one. The ADA Title II web rule requires that door to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Here is what police departments and courts need to know.
Why Title II Applies to Law Enforcement and Courts
Police departments, sheriff's offices, municipal courts, and state court systems are all public entities, or programs of public entities, under ADA Title II. The law covers everything you do, and courts in particular have a long Title II history: the Supreme Court's Tennessee v. Lane decision was about a man who had to crawl up courthouse steps. The 2024 web rule extends that same principle to your online services, with a specific technical standard, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, codified in 28 CFR Part 35, Subpart H.
The stakes are different for you than for most agencies. When someone cannot use a parks signup form, they miss a class. When a deaf crime victim cannot use your reporting form, or a blind defendant cannot read a hearing notice, the consequences include missed court dates, warrants, and denied access to justice. That is why justice-system websites draw complaints early.
What Counts as Covered Content for Police and Courts
Under section 35.200, the rule reaches web content and mobile apps you provide or make available, including through vendors. In practice:
- Online incident and crime reporting. Non-emergency report forms, anonymous tip lines, and crash report requests
- Records requests. Public records portals, accident report lookups, and body-worn camera footage request forms
- Court e-filing. Filing portals for civil, criminal, family, and small claims cases, plus the instructions and fee schedules around them
- Jury duty portals. Summons responses, qualification questionnaires, postponement requests, and reporting instructions
- Payment of fines and fees. Traffic citations, parking tickets, court costs, and restitution payments, whoever processes them
- Victim services information. Protective order forms, victim notification systems, and advocacy resources, where accessibility failures hit people in crisis
- Hearing schedules and case lookup. Dockets, calendars, and case search tools the public relies on daily
Your Deadline
The date follows your government's total population. A police department or municipal court in a city of 50,000 or more, and the courts of every state system, must comply by April 26, 2027. Departments and courts serving populations under 50,000 have until April 26, 2028.
The deadline moved. The work didn't. Effective-communication obligations apply today, and inaccessible justice services are already actionable under existing Title II rules. The full breakdown is on our deadlines page.
The Exceptions That Matter Most for Police and Courts
All five exceptions are in section 35.201. Three deserve your attention:
- Archived web content. Old press releases, past crime statistics reports, and closed-case dockets can qualify if they predate your compliance date, exist for reference only, sit in a labeled archive, and stay unchanged
- Individualized password-protected documents. A PDF about one person's case, available only to that person behind a login, is excepted. The portal around it is not, and neither are documents you generate after your compliance date if accessibility was reasonably achievable
- Preexisting conventional electronic documents. Old PDFs are excepted unless people currently use them to access your services. A fillable protective order form or a records request PDF that residents still download is covered, whatever its date
Three Ways to Start This Quarter
- Map the journeys that carry legal consequences. Jury summons response, citation payment, e-filing, protective orders. Walk each one with only a keyboard. Our first steps guide shows how to turn that walk into a prioritized list
- Audit your forms and PDFs against the checklist. Courts run on forms, and forms are where accessibility fails first. The Title II compliance checklist covers labels, errors, and document structure in plain language
- Get WCAG 2.1 AA into vendor contracts. E-filing, payment processing, jury management, and records systems are almost always vendor platforms. Your responsibility does not transfer to them, but the work can, if the contract says so
Questions Police Departments and Courts Ask
Is our online crime reporting form covered by the ADA web rule?
Yes. Online reporting is a service of your department, so the form must conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. That means proper labels on every field, error messages a screen reader can find, no CAPTCHA that blocks people with disabilities, and full keyboard operation. A reporting form that some residents cannot use is the digital equivalent of a station with no ramp.
Our e-filing and payment systems come from outside vendors. Who is responsible?
You are. The rule covers web content a public entity provides or makes available, including through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements. A court that directs litigants to a vendor e-filing portal, or a police department that uses a vendor for citation payments, remains responsible for that platform's conformance. Build WCAG 2.1 AA into procurement and renewals.
Do body-worn camera videos we post online need captions?
Video you post on your website or social media after your compliance date is covered web content, so it needs captions, and prerecorded video generally needs audio description so blind users get the visual information. Footage produced only in response to an individual records request is a different situation, but anything you publish proactively must conform.
Our jury portal is password protected. Does that exempt it?
No. The password-protected exception is narrow: it covers conventional electronic documents, like a PDF about a specific person's case, that sit behind a login and are specific to that individual. The portal itself, its login screen, questionnaires, scheduling tools, and instructions all must meet WCAG 2.1 AA.
Courts already provide ADA accommodations in the courthouse. Why does the website matter?
Because the courthouse is online now. E-filing, remote hearings, jury duty responses, fine payments, and protective order forms are how people actually interact with courts. Title II has always required effective communication; the web rule adds a measurable standard, WCAG 2.1 AA, and a fixed deadline for the digital side of court access.
Know where your forms and portals stand
A WCAG 2.1 AA assessment of your reporting forms, e-filing, jury portal, and payment systems shows you exactly what fails and what to fix first, before a complaint or a missed court date forces the issue.