Accessibility and Title II

The rule and its dates

In 2024 the U.S. Department of Justice issued a rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It requires the web content and mobile apps of state and local governments to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. That includes the meeting video a town, township, special district or school board posts online.

In 2026 the Department extended the compliance dates. They are now:

Compliance date	Who
April 26, 2027	State and local governments serving a population of 50,000 or more
April 26, 2028	Governments serving fewer than 50,000 people, and special district governments

Population counts follow the Justice Department's guidance; for school districts it depends on the government the district belongs to. Check the Department's notice for the current dates before you plan around them.

What it means for meeting video

WCAG 2.1 AA has several requirements that bear directly on recorded and live meetings:

Captions for recorded video (success criterion 1.2.2). Captions are synchronized with the video and include who is speaking and relevant sounds, not only the words.
Captions for live video (success criterion 1.2.4). A meeting streamed live needs captions while it's live.
Visual information, in the audio (success criterion 1.2.5). If something important is only shown, such as a slide, a map or a vote count on screen, recorded video needs audio description of it. When the people speaking already say what's shown, no extra description is needed.
An accessible player and page. Viewers need to be able to use the player and the page around it with a keyboard and a screen reader, and to read everything at sufficient contrast.

Automatic captions are a starting point. W3C's guidance is that captions need review where automation misses information, such as names, local terms or who is speaking. Meeting minutes or a transcript that isn't synchronized with the video don't take the place of captions.

What Clerkcast does

Live captions during every streamed meeting, generated automatically and shown to everyone.
Captions on every recording, generated automatically after the meeting or upload, or brought in from a captioning service as a WebVTT file.
A caption editor for your staff to correct captions alongside the video, and a verify step that records who checked them and when.
Caption review status. The player tells viewers whether captions are verified or still automatic.
A request form on every video for captions, corrections or documents in another format, with a workflow for staff to answer and close each request.
An accessible player and public site, built to WCAG 2.1 AA and tested with automated checks and from the keyboard.
A labeled archive area for older recordings that meet the archive conditions (see below).
A compliance record of every caption revision, verification, request and archive decision, with a report across your whole library.
Your accessibility statement, published on your video site from the admin, with your own contact address.

What stays with your staff

Clerkcast doesn't review captions or answer requests for you. Your staff:

Review and correct captions, then verify them. Clerkcast doesn't supply reviewers.
Answer requests on time, whether for captions, a correction or a document in another format.
Decide what goes in the archive and confirm that each recording meets the conditions.
Make sure important visuals are spoken. When a meeting relies on slides, maps or on-screen figures, the simplest approach is for presenters to say what they show. Otherwise the recording needs audio description, which Clerkcast doesn't provide. Posting the slides as documents helps people who want them, but it doesn't replace description in the video.
Keep the rest of your website accessible. Clerkcast covers your video site and its embeds, not the pages around them.

Older recordings

The rule has an exception for archived web content: content created before the compliance date, kept only for reference, research or recordkeeping, held in a special area for archived content, and not changed after it was archived. All of those conditions have to hold.

Clerkcast's archive area is built around them. Staff confirm each condition when they archive a recording, the recording is frozen, and it's shown under a clear “Archived” label. If someone asks for captions on an archived recording, staff can answer with a private accessible copy without changing the original. Whether the exception applies to a given recording is still your decision.

Sources

Already streaming to YouTube? Read what Clerkcast adds to YouTube.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Last reviewed October 26, 2026.

ADA Title II and meeting video