ADA Title II for Archived Government Records
Archivists and records managers across US state and local government are working toward the same goal: making digital collections accessible under ADA Title II. Your archived records carry the same legal risk. Under ADA Title II, inaccessible archives aren't an oversight, they're a liability. Preservica closes that gap.
Are your archived records a compliance liability?
ADA Title II enforcement is active. WCAG 2.1 AA applies to your digital archives, not just your website. Section 508 and DOJ 28 CFR Part 35 require equal access to electronic records, and state mandates in Colorado, California, and beyond are already in force. Most agencies are focused on the wrong thing. Preservica helps make sure your archives are not the compliance liability nobody saw coming.
Accelerate response times from days to minutes
An inaccessible record is a liability the moment someone asks for it
Easily find any record, instantly and on demand
30% of a government entity's data must be preserved for 7 years to indefinitely
Make archived content accessible to anyone who needs it
The archived content exception is narrower than most agencies think
See how much more productive you can be with Preservica’s built in human-centric AI
Trusted by government to keep records accessible - for decades.
“The fact that digital preservation, flexible collection management, access and content acquisition, like web-harvesting, are all integrated together with Preservica is a tremendous benefit. This allows me to achieve so much more and focus on my role preserving and providing access to our amazing digital collections.”
Marta Crilly, Archivist for Research and Outreach, Boston City Archives
“I now have an automated & secure way to invite departmental record coordinators to submit reports, minutes, charts & evidence of departmental activity ensuring they are properly preserved and accessible for the long-term.”
Brad Houston, Records Officer, City of Milwaukee
“The External Submissions tool is a big advantage in the way town staff can participate in the accessioning of digital records and in digital preservation in general. With this tool, there is no need for a file hosting service, submissions go directly to your repository after they’ve been approved.”
Ashley Large, Archivist, Town of Bedford, MA
“Given our legal mandate, it was vital for us to expand and enhance our digital preservation efforts to ensure these essential government records remained accessible into the future.”
Jelain Chubb, State Archivist and Director, Archives and Information Services Division at TSLAC
How Preservica supports your ADA program
Ingest & Capture
Metadata Enrichment
ADA Enhancement Actions
Format Migration
Capture records before they become a liability
Most platforms are built for new content. Legacy collections are where compliance exposure lives.
- Bring every legacy and live record under governance automatically, because unmanaged content is your first compliance liability
- Migrate formats through automated workflows before inaccessibility becomes an audit finding
- Process your entire archive in batch without manual handling, because records outside governance are records outside your compliance perimeter
AI-powered enrichment that makes records findable at scale
AI enrichment built into a preservation platform produces defensible, auditable accessibility evidence. Bolted-on tools produce tags.
- Generate alt text for images automatically and enrich records at scale with AI-powered metadata
- Customize schemas and tags at collection level so content is more discoverable
- Apply consistent descriptive standards across every content type, because inconsistent metadata is where compliance evidence breaks down
How Records Become Accessible
Other tools make files accessible. Preservica makes records accessible and proves it.
- Extract full text in documents so content is searchable
- Apply AI OCR and subject tagging to scanned images so invisible content cannot stay invisible
- Timestamped transcripts and captions with full audit trail
Keep records accessible as technology moves on
Most platforms store your records. They do not protect them from becoming unreadable. Whether content arrives from SharePoint, a legacy EDRMS, a shared drive, or a digitization workflow, format migration keeps it readable regardless of where it started.
- Automatically migrate file formats through workflows that keep legacy content readable as technology changes around it
- Reduce the risk of format obsolescence before inaccessible content becomes an audit finding you cannot remediate in time
- Ensure records ingested today are still readable and compliant years from now, because format decay does not wait for your next system upgrade
Accessible to citizens. Defensible to auditors.
Accessible records for the public. Defensible evidence for auditors. One platform delivers both, because a portal without a preservation-native audit trail behind it is just a website.
- Deliver accessible records, transcripts, and captions to citizens through a WCAG 2.1 AA-aligned public portal so accessibility is visible, not just documented
- Generate a complete record of every action taken across your archive so good-faith effort is provable to regulators, not just claimable in a meeting
- Back every citizen-facing record with a preservation-native audit trail, because informal records of remediation are not evidence when it counts
Your archived records have an accessibility problem. Let's fix it.
The ADA Title II deadline is here. Is your archive ready? Join us for a straight talk on what the rule means for government records, where most agencies fall short, and a live Preservica demo. Thirty minutes. Watch now.
Transparency you can take to procurement
Our VPAT and Accessibility Conformance Report are available on request through our Trust Center. Preservica's platform is partially compliant with WCAG 2.2 AA, a higher standard than ADA Title II requires.
Many mandates. One solution.
ADA Title II is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities by state and local government entities. The 2024 DOJ rule update extended Title II requirements to digital content meaning government websites, mobile apps, and digital documents must now meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards. Any state or local government agency, public university, court system, or special district that offers digital services or maintains public-facing digital content is required to comply.
Compliance deadlines vary by agency size. Local governments and special districts serving populations over 50,000 must comply by April 24, 2026. Smaller agencies serving populations under 50,000 have until April 26, 2027. These deadlines apply to all new and updated digital content. Legacy and archived content may qualify for limited exemptions, but agencies should not assume all historical records are automatically excluded.
Yes, with important nuances. The DOJ rule covers digital content that is currently active or publicly accessible, including archived records, scanned documents, and legacy web pages. However, agencies may qualify for a "fundamental alteration" or "undue burden" exemption for certain legacy content if full remediation would be technically infeasible or prohibitively costly. These exemptions are narrow, must be formally documented, and do not eliminate the obligation to provide accessible alternatives upon request. Agencies should conduct a content audit to identify what requires remediation versus what may qualify for exemption.
WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the accessibility standard mandated by the DOJ under ADA Title II. It requires that digital content be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust, the four POUR principles. In practical terms, this means documents and web content must include alt text for images, proper heading structures, keyboard navigability, sufficient color contrast, captions for audio and video content, and accessible PDF formatting. For government agencies managing large volumes of digital records, compliance means ensuring that documents are not just stored but stored in formats that assistive technologies can read.
Non-compliance exposes government agencies to formal DOJ investigations, civil rights complaints, and potential litigation. The DOJ actively investigates ADA Title II violations and has authority to seek corrective action, impose remediation plans, and pursue legal penalties. Beyond federal enforcement, agencies face reputational risk and the practical burden of responding to individual accessibility accommodation requests without a compliant system in place. Proactive compliance is significantly less costly than reactive remediation under enforcement pressure.
Preservica's digital preservation platform is purpose-built for government agencies managing complex, long-term records obligations. Preserve365 supports accessible file format migration, structured metadata management, and the kind of audit-ready documentation that agencies need to demonstrate compliance, or substantiate exemption claims, under ADA Title II. Rather than treating accessibility as a one-time remediation project, Preservica embeds compliance into the ongoing records management workflow, so agencies stay ahead of both current deadlines and future regulatory updates. For agencies navigating multiple mandates simultaneously, Preservica provides a single, scalable solution for digital preservation and accessibility compliance.
A structured, phased approach is most effective. Agencies should begin with a full digital content audit to categorize records by access frequency, public visibility, and remediation complexity. High-priority content frequently accessed documents, forms, and public-facing pages should be remediated first. For large legacy archives, agencies should evaluate digital preservation platforms that support accessible file formats, automated metadata tagging, and audit-ready documentation. A compliant digital preservation strategy addresses both current content standards and defensible exemption documentation for legacy holdings.
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