National Federation of the Blind Condemns DOJ Interim Final Rule Signaling Delay of ADA Title II Digital Accessibility Enforcement
BALTIMORE, MD (April 20, 2026) — The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) today expresses outrage in response to news that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued an interim final rule regarding ADA Title II website and mobile application accessibility that delays implementation and accountability for state and local government digital accessibility.
The Title II website accessibility regulation, issued on April 24, 2024, was scheduled to take effect on April 24, 2026. We urged the Department to protect the rule, and we opposed any attempt to delay, rescind, or otherwise undermine it. Accessible digital services are essential for blind people to access education, pay taxes, obtain public benefits, and participate fully in civic life.
Title II has required since 1990 that state and local governments ensure communications with blind and other disabled people are “as effective as” communications with nondisabled individuals since, and the Department of Justice has long made clear that this includes web and mobile communications.
The 2024 regulation provides the clarity public entities have requested by setting a recognized technical standard, allowing equivalent facilitation, and including targeted exceptions and phased-in timelines. It was announced on April 20 through the interim final rule published in the Federal Register that the Department is delaying implementation of the rule, without going through advanced notice to the public and opportunities for public comment.
"After more than a decade of advocacy for clarity on website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), we finally have a Title II regulation that provides the roadmap public entities need to make their digital services accessible to blind people in the United States. The effort to weaken and delay this rule is a betrayal of the promise America made when it enacted the ADA, which guaranteed our rights to participate fully in the mainstream of American life," stated Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind.
"The organized blind movement will not stand idle while the Department of Justice undermines the very regulation we fought so hard to achieve. Blind Americans deserve timely access to government services."
Delaying digital accessibility has real consequences for blind people at every stage of life—from students and working professionals to seniors accessing public services. An immediate concern is the impact on blind students who are among those most directly harmed when public entities rely on inaccessible websites and mobile apps for course materials, assignments, and student portals.
When information is not accessible, blind students are excluded from the same curricula as their peers, face delays in completing coursework and degrees, and encounter unnecessary barriers to entering the workforce and participating fully in society.
President Riccobono shared our initial concerns upon hearing the news of the delay in the video below, posted to the National Federation of the Blind’s communications channels.
Recent Resources for Additional References
April 17, 2026: Initial Remarks from President Riccobono regarding the announced Delay
Video Transcript:
President Riccobono: I'm Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, and I'm here in our empty computer lab to talk about our outrage that the United States Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights has released an interim final rule related to ADA Title II web accessibility and digital regulations. Why am I here in this empty room? Because the government has said it's okay for blind people to continue to wait to get equal access to state government, education, and other forms of digital access through Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But wait, we have been waiting for two years since this rule was announced two years ago. So, we've been waiting, outrageous that we should wait longer, but it gets even worse because it hasn't just been two years. The original advanced rulemaking was sixteen years ago in 2010. Blind people have been waiting to get access to paying our taxes, to education, to so many government services, waiting.
But it's been even longer than that with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This promise was given to Americans with disabilities in 1990. America is celebrating this year, our 250th anniversary of the promise that this nation makes for equal access. And we've been guaranteed this promise, not just in the Constitution, but through the Americans with Disabilities Act starting in 1990.
Outrageous that the Department of Justice wants us to wait even longer. The National Federation of the Blind is prepared to continue to advocate and to continue to push forward to make sure that blind people no longer have to wait for the doors to be open for us to have equal access to the digital services provided by our state and local governments.
Social media links of President Riccobono’s remarks to share: YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Tik Tok, Instagram, X