WCAG Is Coming to Wisconsin Municipalities—Let’s Talk About What That Really Means

Wisconsin's municipalities are facing a fast-approaching deadline to make all web and digital content accessible. Is your team ready?

Talk to us today about what the WCAG requirements mean and how your municipality can enact a plan to have your web content ADA accessible.

Wisconsin municipalities are heading toward a major digital accessibility deadline. Under a recent U.S. Department of Justice’s rule, every city, county, and local government must ensure their websites and digital content comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 2.1, Level AA. In short, all state and local governments need to make sure digital content is accessible to people with disabilities.

Your deadline is set by the size of the population you serve:

• April 24, 2026 for municipalities over 50,000

• April 26, 2027 for everyone else

That may sound far off, but WCAG compliance is not a quick tune-up. It’s a shift in how your municipality creates, publishes, and maintains digital content. And the sooner you begin, the easier—and more cost-effective—the process will be.

WCAG Affects Far More Than Just Your Website

Municipalities are often surprised by how many materials fall under the requirement:

• Websites and subpages

• Forms, permits, and applications

• Budgets, packets, reports, and presentations

• PDFs and legacy documents still in use

• Videos and audio recordings

• Social media content

• Mobile apps

• Any digital resource residents use to access services

If it helps the public apply for, participate in, or understand your programs, it must meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. And anything you update after your deadline must be compliant from that point forward.

Why You Should Start Now

Here’s the reality: WCAG compliance takes strategy, time, and consistent effort.

Municipalities that wait until the last year—or last six months—will face:

• Larger backlogs of documents that need remediation

• Rushed vendor costs

• Communications delays

• Frustrated residents

• Higher legal exposure

  
  

Starting now allows you to work at a manageable pace, prioritize what matters most, train your team, and build internal processes so compliance becomes part of your normal workflow.

If You’re Unsure Where to Begin, Dexter Is Here to Help

This is where many municipalities get stuck—not in the “why,” but the “how.” Here are some ways we can support your municipality:

• Review your municipality's WCAG readiness to show exactly where you stand

• Help create content prioritization plans so you focus on the materials that matter most

• Identify document remediation for PDFs, Word files, forms, and PowerPoints

• Complete a website accessibility audit and provide recommendations.

• Coordinate with trusted vendors for creating captions and transcripts for videos and meeting recordings

• Train your staff so they understand the rules and can create accessible content moving forward

• Develop new SOPs to make compliance sustainable for the long-term

Whether you need a one-time audit, help building a full compliance plan, or ongoing support, you don’t have to navigate this alone.

Let’s Get Your Municipality WCAG-Ready

Your community deserves accessible, dependable digital information. And with the deadlines approaching, taking action now will save time, money, and stress later.

If you’re ready to get ahead of your compliance deadline—or if you just want a clear, realistic starting point—reach out and let’s talk about a plan that fits your municipality’s needs.