Is Blaine County'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 Blaine County'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.
Blaine County'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:
- Court services — The only pathway we found for this service fails 4 serious accessibility checks — including: composite controls are missing required child elements for assistive tech. 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 · 108 pages)
- critical Delayed refresh under 20 hours must not be used (WCAG 2.2.1 · 4 pages)
- critical Buttons have no accessible name — assistive tech users can't tell what they do (WCAG 4.1.2 · 2 pages)
- critical ARIA accessibility attributes are used incorrectly and may mislead screen readers (WCAG 4.1.2 · 2 pages)
- critical ARIA attributes must conform to valid names (WCAG 4.1.2 · 2 pages)
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What WCAG 2.1 Level AA means for county government websites
With 25,261 residents, Blaine County 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 public health services, permits, and assessor records all need to work for residents with disabilities.
Blaine County is a mid-size community, and its website is the front door for public health services, permits, and assessor records. 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 Blaine County's website continuously and sends a plain-English weekly digest — no technical background needed.