ADA Title II deadlines for public colleges, and how to fix PowerPoint alt text

The rule in one paragraph

In April 2024 the Department of Justice published a rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requiring state and local governments to make their web content and mobile apps accessible (Federal Register, April 24, 2024). The technical standard is WCAG 2.1, Level AA. ADA.gov’s list of covered state and local governments includes “Public schools, community colleges, and public universities” (ADA.gov fact sheet).

The deadlines (as extended in April 2026)

An Interim Final Rule published in the Federal Register on April 20, 2026, and effective that day, extended the original dates. In the Department’s words: “The compliance date for State and local government entities with a total population of 50,000 or more is extended from April 24, 2026, to April 26, 2027. The compliance date for public entities with a total population of less than 50,000, or any special district government, is extended from April 26, 2027, to April 26, 2028” (Federal Register 2026-07663).

Source: ADA.gov, Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps. The document is an interim final rule with a request for comments, so check ADA.gov for later changes. Older articles that give April 24, 2026 as the first deadline are out of date.

Which date applies to a public college?

The “population” is not student enrollment. It is the population of the government the college belongs to. ADA.gov explains that a body without its own Census population, such as a city library, uses “the population of the larger government they are part of” (ADA.gov). The 2024 rule gives a college example:

“a public State university located in a town of 20,000 within a State with a population of 5 million would be considered a large public entity for the purposes of this part because it is an instrumentality of the State. However, a county community college in the same State where the county has a population of 35,000 would be considered a small public entity for the purposes of this part, because the community college is an instrumentality of the county.”

Source: 2024 final rule, Federal Register (printed page 31352). That example came before the 2026 extension. Under the extended dates, a “large” entity’s date is April 26, 2027 and a “small” entity’s date is April 26, 2028. Your institution will know which government it is an instrumentality of.

Do course materials and slide decks count?

• Password-protected course content is not exempt. The 2024 rule dropped the course-content exceptions it had proposed and says “password-protected course content will be treated like any other content” (2024 final rule).
• New PowerPoints posted after the date generally need to conform. ADA.gov’s own example: a town posts a PowerPoint after its compliance date, and “The presentation would not fall under the exception, and it would probably have to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA, because it was posted after the rule’s compliance date” (ADA.gov).
• Older documents may fall under an exception. ADA.gov describes an exception for “preexisting conventional electronic documents.” Both conditions must be true: the files are “word processing, presentation, PDF, or spreadsheet files,” and they were available “before the date the state or local government must comply with this rule.” Even then, ADA.gov says this applies “except in some situations,” and updating an old document can remove the exception.

Where alt text fits in WCAG 2.1

WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content, Level A) says: “All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose, except for the situations listed below” (W3C WCAG 2.1). In a slide deck, the image description, or alt text, is the usual way to give a picture a text alternative. Alt text is only one criterion, though. Reading order, contrast, slide titles, tables, and video captions also matter.

How to add or fix alt text in PowerPoint

Microsoft’s support pages describe these steps for current desktop versions of PowerPoint (Microsoft 365 and Office 2016–2024). Menus vary slightly by version and platform.

1. Open the Alt Text pane. Right-click the picture and select View Alt Text. Or select the picture and choose Picture Format > Alt Text. For a whole chart or SmartArt graphic, Microsoft says to click its border, not an individual piece (Microsoft Support).
2. Describe the image in context. Microsoft suggests typing “1-2 sentences in the text box to describe the object and its context to someone who cannot see it” (Microsoft Support). Its writing guide also says not to repeat surrounding text or use phrases like “a graphic of” or “an image of” (Microsoft: write effective alt text).
3. Mark purely decorative images as decorative. Check Mark as decorative for things like stylistic borders. Screen-reader users then “hear that these objects are decorative so they know they aren't missing any important information” (Microsoft Support).
4. Review automatically generated alt text. Newer versions can generate alt text with AI. Microsoft lets you approve it with the Approve alt text checkbox, and you can turn generation on or off under File > Options > Accessibility (Microsoft Support). Read every generated description against the slide’s purpose before approving it.
5. Find what you missed. Select Review > Check Accessibility and work through the findings in the Accessibility pane (Microsoft: Accessibility Checker). Microsoft’s PowerPoint guide also covers reading order, contrast and other fixes (Microsoft: accessible PowerPoint presentations).

Fixing a whole deck at once

PowerPoint’s Alt Text pane works on the selected object. If you have many pictures to review, the free Alt Text for PowerPoint editor ↗ lists every slide picture in one place, in slide order. You can edit descriptions one at a time or apply one description to several selected pictures, then download a new copy. It runs in your browser and does not upload your deck. Slides 1–20 are free to edit, and later slides are kept unchanged. Before you use it on real decks, try the six-slide practice deck and read the context examples.

The editor does not change decorative flags, native charts, SmartArt or reading order. Finish in PowerPoint with the Accessibility Checker and a human review. See what the editor covers.