Worthington Libraries finished its work to bring the library website into compliance with the federal ADA Title II accessibility standard by the original April 2026 deadline, even after the federal government extended that deadline another year. Director Lauren Robinson reported the milestone to the Board of Trustees on May 19 and described two changes residents can use now: a new way to request accessible versions of library documents, and automatic captions on the board's Zoom-broadcast meetings.
What Title II requires
ADA Title II applies to state and local governments and the public services they provide. The U.S. Department of Justice's 2024 rule extended that to digital content. Public-sector websites and mobile apps must meet a defined accessibility standard so that people with disabilities can navigate, read, and interact with public information on equal footing. The original implementation deadline for many entities was April 2026. The federal government has since extended it another year, but Worthington Libraries did not slow its work to match.
"They worked tirelessly to make sure our website complied with the ADA Title II compliance regulations that we were supposed to meet in April of this year, but then they extended it another year. So we have more time, but we were able to get in compliance by the original deadline", Robinson told the board.
The new patron remediation channel
For documents on the library's website that residents can't yet use with their accessibility tools, the library has opened a request channel. Residents who hit a barrier can contact the library's digital experience team to flag the specific document, and staff will work to remediate it.
The biggest piece still to remediate is Worthington Memory, the library's local-history archive. The site holds historical documents, photographs, video files, and other born-analog material that cannot all be made compliant in a single sweep.
"There's video files on there, there's pictures, there's so much that it's going to take us a long time to catch up. But now people have a way to reach out to us and ask, and we're more than happy to accommodate those asks", Robinson said.
A trustee asked whether older material was grandfathered out of the requirement. Robinson said archival material specifically is treated differently under the rule, but most of what's on Worthington Memory does not fall under the archival exemption, meaning the library has to work through it.
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Captioning is on for board meetings
Worthington Libraries Board of Trustees meetings are broadcast on YouTube (but captured using Zoom). Starting with the May 19 meeting, automatic captions are turned on for that broadcast. Residents who watch board meetings live or after the fact can now read along.
"People can enjoy our board meetings via the internet but also be able to read them from there as well", Robinson said. A trustee on the call said the captioning quality is good and described it as "catching every word that we say correctly".
Who did the work
The compliance work was led by the library's digital experience team. Robinson thanked staff across departments at the meeting, including the team responsible for making PDFs accessible — a notoriously hard piece of the standard.
How to use the channel
Residents who need a library document remediated should contact Worthington Libraries through the accessibility information on the library website and request specific items. The library can't preemptively fix every legacy document, but the system is set up to respond when residents flag what they need.