Morton Digital

2026-05-17 · 5 min read

Alachua County Government Website Accessibility: What the DOJ Title II Rule Requires

Abstract dark editorial illustration: a North Central Florida county government compliance diagram rendered in fine copper line work on dark slate, with WCAG accessibility markers. No text.

# Alachua County Government Website Accessibility: What the DOJ Title II Rule Requires

Alachua County sits at the center of one of Florida's most digitally active communities. With the University of Florida anchoring Gainesville, the county's roughly 270,000 residents include a large share of students, faculty, staff, and researchers — many of whom rely on assistive technology daily. The DOJ's final rule under Title II of the ADA establishes WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the enforceable standard for public entity websites, and it sets a hard deadline for Alachua County government: April 26, 2027.

That's eleven months away. For agencies that haven't started remediation, the runway is shorter than it looks.

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Who Must Comply by April 2027

The April 2027 deadline applies to public entities serving populations over 50,000. In Alachua County, that covers two governments directly:

Smaller municipalities in the county — Newberry (~8,000), Alachua (~11,000), and Micanopy (~600) — fall under the April 2028 deadline as entities serving fewer than 50,000 residents.

Two large institutions that operate in Gainesville are separately covered and outside county/city compliance scope: the University of Florida (a state university governed by the Board of Governors) and Santa Fe College (Florida College System). The Alachua County School District is an independent entity with its own compliance obligation.

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What Must Be Accessible

The rule applies broadly to any web content or mobile application a public entity makes available to the public or uses to offer services. For Alachua County and Gainesville, that includes:

Content posted before June 24, 2024 is generally exempt unless it is still actively used to provide services or to participate in government programs. Any new content posted after that date must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

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Where Alachua County Government Sites Most Commonly Fail

Specific audit findings vary by site, but Alachua County's digital infrastructure presents several high-probability failure areas based on the patterns most common in similarly-sized Florida governments.

Gainesville Regional Utilities billing portal. GRU is a city-owned utility with its own web infrastructure, billing platform, and account management tools. Utility billing portals are among the most frequently inaccessible government web applications — they commonly fail on keyboard navigation, screen reader form labeling, and session timeout handling. Because GRU serves essentially every city resident, an inaccessible billing portal is a high-severity finding.

RTS trip planning and real-time bus arrival. Real-time transit information often relies on dynamic map interfaces and live data feeds that are notoriously difficult to make accessible. Screen reader users and users who cannot operate a mouse depend on keyboard-accessible, text-based alternatives for route planning and arrival times. If RTS relies on third-party mapping or scheduling software, the city remains responsible for ensuring that software meets WCAG 2.1 AA.

County commission and city commission PDFs. Both the county and city produce high volumes of agenda packets, staff reports, and adopted resolutions as PDFs. The majority of government-generated PDFs fail PDF/UA requirements: they lack tagged structure, reading order is incorrect, and tables are presented as images. These documents are central to public participation in government, which makes inaccessible agendas a compliance and equity issue simultaneously.

Gainesville's development review and permitting portal. The UF-adjacent growth corridor drives substantial permit volume into Gainesville's development review system. These portals typically involve multi-step form flows, file uploads, and status dashboards — all common sources of accessibility failures. Developers, architects, and citizens with disabilities must be able to use these systems equivalently.

Emergency management content. Alachua County sits in an inland flooding zone with documented risk from tropical systems that stall over North Florida. Emergency preparedness pages, shelter location tools, and evacuation guidance must be accessible — during normal operations and during an actual emergency, when users may have reduced bandwidth and may be relying on assistive technology on a mobile device.

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Compliance Timeline

Working backwards from the April 26, 2027 deadline, here is what a realistic compliance calendar looks like for Alachua County and Gainesville.

| Phase | Window | What Happens | |---|---|---| | Audit | May – July 2026 | Full WCAG 2.1 AA audit of priority web properties; findings report delivered | | Remediation planning | July – August 2026 | Internal prioritization, vendor engagement, budget allocation | | Remediation | August 2026 – January 2027 | Development and content fixes executed by priority | | Verification testing | February – March 2027 | Assistive technology re-testing confirms fixes hold | | Accessibility statement published | March 2027 | Public statement posted to primary domain | | Deadline | April 26, 2027 | DOJ compliance required |

Starting the audit in May or June 2026 leaves meaningful remediation time. Waiting until late 2026 compresses everything and raises the risk of arriving at the deadline with open findings.

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The Parallax WCAG Audit

Morton Technology Consulting offers the Parallax WCAG audit at a fixed fee of $9,500 — no hourly billing, no scope ambiguity. The audit covers up to 200 pages across your priority web properties, tested with NVDA on Windows and VoiceOver on iOS, augmented with axe-core automated scanning. Deliverables include a full findings report with WCAG 2.1 criterion citations, severity ratings, and a remediation roadmap your development team can execute against.

An accessibility statement template is included, suitable for publication on your primary domain.

Morton Technology Consulting is based in Tallahassee — 70 miles from Gainesville — and focuses specifically on Florida government WCAG compliance engagements.

Florida's procurement rules require a written quote for purchases in the $9,500 range — contact us to receive a formal quote suitable for your purchasing process.

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*Morton Technology Consulting LLC, Tallahassee, FL. Government website WCAG compliance audits for the April 2027 deadline.*

Sources

  1. [1] ADA.gov — DOJ Fact Sheet: New Rule on Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps — "State and local governments must make sure that their web content and mobile apps meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA"
  2. [2] U.S. Census Bureau — QuickFacts: Alachua County, Florida — "Alachua County, Florida population estimate"
  3. [3] ADA.gov — DOJ Title II Web Accessibility Final Rule: Public Universities Coverage — "State and local governments and their instrumentalities, including public universities"
  4. [4] ADA.gov — DOJ Title II Web Accessibility Final Rule Overview — "A public entity that uses a third party's web content or mobile app to offer services to the public must ensure that such content or app is accessible"
  5. [5] Deque Systems — Automated Testing Study Identifies 57% of Digital Accessibility Issues — "automated testing can identify approximately 57% of accessibility issues"

Morton Technology Consulting LLC — WCAG 2.1 AA audits for Florida government agencies. Parallax audit → · WCAG Readiness Kit → · All posts →