US accessibility laws: the federal baseline and the states that add to it

Title III of the ADA forbids discrimination on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services and facilities of any place of public accommodation. It also counts as discrimination a failure to provide the auxiliary aids and services a person needs, unless that would fundamentally alter what is offered or impose an undue burden.

The statute does not mention websites. The Department of Justice filled the gap with guidance published on 18 March 2022, which says the Department has consistently taken the position that the ADA's requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges or activities offered by public accommodations, including those offered on the web. The same page says the Department has no regulation setting out detailed standards, that WCAG and the Section 508 Standards provide helpful guidance, and that guidance documents have no legally binding effect.

There is no Title III web regulation. The Department published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on web accessibility in 2010 and withdrew it on 26 December 2017 (82 FR 60932), saying it would keep assessing whether specific technical standards are necessary. In practice that leaves WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA as the yardstick most audits use, without a federal rule naming it for private businesses.

Public bodies have a precise rule. Subpart H of the Title II regulation holds the web content and mobile apps of state and local governments to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, including content they provide through contractors and licensed platforms. The interim final rule of 20 April 2026 moved the compliance dates to 26 April 2027 for entities of 50,000 people or more and 26 April 2028 for smaller entities and special districts.

Federal agencies follow Section 508. Its standards, in 36 CFR part 1194, require electronic content to conform to WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. Several of the state laws below borrow Section 508 or its older provisions by name.

A state is listed only if it has one of two things, checked against the official text on 5 November 2026. The first is its own digital accessibility law: a statute, or a standard the state's IT authority issues with binding force, that sets accessibility duties for websites or technology. The second is a civil rights statute that the state's own enforcement body or a court has applied to websites, where the official source could be read.

On those terms the list holds California, New York, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, Washington, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Utah and Ohio. Each page gives the citation, who the law binds, the standard it names, how it is enforced and the dates.

Most states have a general civil rights law covering public accommodations, and nearly all of them publish an accessibility statement for their own websites. Neither is enough for this list. A general statute with no official word on websites adds nothing a reader can act on beyond federal law, and a state's own accessibility statement is a promise, not a law.

Some states were left off because the primary text could not be read on the day of checking, even where a law may well exist. Those are named separately, so a missing state should not be read as a state with no rules.

Read side by side, the state laws fall into three groups. California and New York reach private businesses through civil rights statutes. Colorado, Virginia, Kentucky and Arkansas reach local governments, school systems or anyone on state money, as well as state agencies. The rest bind state agencies only.

They do not agree on a standard. Arkansas still points to the old Section 508 provisions in 36 CFR 1194.21 and 1194.22 as they stood in 2019. Florida and Kentucky point to Section 508, which today means WCAG 2.0 Level AA. California sets WCAG 2.0 or later at Level AA, Minnesota starts from WCAG 2.0 and lets its CIO move up. Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia and Texas contracts sit on WCAG 2.1 AA, the same as the federal Title II rule. Washington and Missouri have moved to WCAG 2.2 AA, and Utah and New York tie themselves to the most recent version.

Most of them work through procurement. Texas asks vendors for accessibility documentation with every bid, Illinois for a current VPAT or ACR, Virginia for an ACR and a roadmap at the vendor's expense, Ohio for a certification, and Washington for validation and a remediation plan it can enforce. Among the technology statutes on this list, two give the public a court action against the body that falls short: Colorado, with $3,500 per violation or actual damages as OIT states it, and Arkansas, with an injunction. Texas says outright that its subchapter creates none.

A private business should look first at the states where a civil rights statute reaches websites, which on this list means California and New York. Elsewhere the exposure is mainly Title III, plus whatever the state's general law adds.

A vendor selling software or web work to a state should read the procurement parts. Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Washington, Kentucky, Arkansas and Ohio all put accessibility into contracts or require conformance documentation from suppliers.

A public body is bound by the federal Title II rule regardless of state law. The state pages show where state law adds a duty on top, such as Colorado's accessibility statement or New York's progress report.