Is Aspen's Website Ready for the ADA Title II Deadline?
Did you know the deadline already changed?
Here's something many local officials missed: the original compliance deadline has already moved once. On April 20, 2026, the Department of Justice issued an Interim Final Rule pushing each deadline back a full year — which means Aspen's date is now April 26, 2028. A one-time extension is a grace period, not a reprieve. There is no indication another one is coming.
Aspen's latest accessibility scan
Overall compliance risk: High — 1 citizen service residents with disabilities may be unable to use
⚠ Critical Service Risk
These citizen services appear to have no accessible alternative pathway — the highest-exposure findings in this scan:
- Online bill or fee payment — The only pathway we found for this service fails 6 serious accessibility checks — including: aria accessibility attributes are used incorrectly and may mislead screen readers. Residents using assistive technology may be unable to complete it.
Top issues, in plain English
- critical Composite controls are missing required child elements for assistive tech (WCAG 1.3.1 · 104 pages)
- critical Accessibility attributes point at elements that don't exist (WCAG 4.1.2 · 9 pages)
- critical ARIA accessibility attributes are used incorrectly and may mislead screen readers (WCAG 4.1.2 · 8 pages)
- critical Delayed refresh under 20 hours must not be used (WCAG 2.2.1 · 2 pages)
- critical Buttons have no accessible name — assistive tech users can't tell what they do (WCAG 4.1.2 · 2 pages)
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What WCAG 2.1 Level AA means for city government websites
With 6,556 residents, Aspen falls under the DOJ's small-entity tier (under 50,000 population), which comes with the later of the two federal deadlines — but the same technical standard.
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the technical standard the DOJ adopted for ADA Title II. In plain terms, it's a checklist that makes sure residents who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or captions can actually use your website: text on every image, labels on every form field, enough color contrast to read, and video captions.
Smaller entities sometimes assume they're exempt. They aren't — the later deadline is the only accommodation the rule makes for size. Services like business licensing, utility sign-up, and code enforcement requests all need to work for residents with disabilities.
Aspen is a smaller community, and its website is the front door for business licensing, utility sign-up, and code enforcement requests. Under ADA Title II, that front door has to work for every resident.
Don't find out about problems from a demand letter
A11yCheck monitors Aspen's website continuously and sends a plain-English weekly digest — no technical background needed.