The Section 504 web rule for healthcare and HHS-funded organizations
Organizations that receive funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services must make their websites and mobile apps meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The first deadline is now May 11, 2027.
At a glance
Checked against the official sources on 13 September 2026. General information, not legal advice.
- Who it covers
- Organizations that receive federal financial assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services.
- Standard
- WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web content and mobile apps.
- Deadlines
- May 11, 2027 for recipients with 15 or more employees. May 10, 2028 for recipients with fewer than 15.
- Extension
- An interim final rule published on May 11, 2026 moved both deadlines back by a year. The standard didn't change.
Key dates
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| May 11, 2026 | HHS publishes the interim final rule extending both compliance dates. |
| May 11, 2027 | Deadline for recipients with 15 or more employees. |
| May 10, 2028 | Deadline for recipients with fewer than 15 employees. |
For clinics and practices
Patient forms, appointment booking and contact pages are where failures hurt most. Unlabelled form fields, low contrast and controls that don't work with a keyboard are among the most common problems automated checks find.
For healthcare marketing agencies
If you build sites for practices, an audit of each client's key pages shows what to fix before the deadline and gives the practice a dated report it can file.
Where AccessGuard helps
An audit shows what fails today and keeps a dated history as fixes land.
- WCAG 2.2 AA audit
- Covers the WCAG 2.1 AA criteria in the rule, apart from 4.1.1 Parsing, which WCAG 2.2 removed, plus the newer 2.2 criteria.
- Reports for the client
- A PDF under your agency's name that explains each failure in plain words.
- A record of progress
- Scan history shows what failed, when it was fixed and what's new since the last audit.
What an audit can't do
- It can't confirm that an organization meets Section 504. Only part of WCAG can be checked automatically.
- It checks web pages, not patient portals behind a login, PDFs or mobile apps.
- This page is general information, not legal advice. Ask counsel about a specific organization.
Questions
When is the Section 504 website deadline?
May 11, 2027 for HHS funding recipients with 15 or more employees, and May 10, 2028 for those with fewer than 15.
Which standard does the rule use?
WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
Does my practice receive HHS funding?
Many healthcare providers do, for example through Medicare or Medicaid programs. Check with your compliance team or counsel.
Is this the same as the ADA Title II rule?
No. It is a separate rule from HHS under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, with its own deadlines, though both use WCAG 2.1 AA.
Related
- European Accessibility Act
EU law applying since 28 June 2025 to e-commerce, consumer banking, transport, e-books and communications services, with penalties set by each country.
- ADA and business websites
US businesses open to the public. There is no federal web standard under Title III, and WCAG is the usual benchmark.
- ADA Title II web rule
State and local governments and public colleges must meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 26, 2027 or April 26, 2028, depending on size.
- Form labels checker
Finds inputs without labels, placeholders used as the only label, and fields that don't say what they collect.
- Color contrast checker
Measures text and control colors on the rendered page against the WCAG 2.2 AA ratios, and flags links that differ from text by color alone.
- Keyboard and focus checker
Finds controls people can't reach by keyboard, focus styles that were removed, and focused elements hidden behind sticky headers.
- WCAG 2.2 checklist
Every A and AA criterion, and how much of each an automated audit can check.
See where a client site stands today
Run a free WCAG 2.2 AA audit of any page. Results in about a minute.