A clerk’s checklist for ADA Title II meeting video

ADA Title II meeting videoYouTube auto-captionsAudio descriptionClerk checklist

1. Confirm your date

The Department of Justice’s 2024 Title II web rule set WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard. An April 20, 2026 Interim Final Rule moved the original dates by one year. The current dates, as published on ADA.gov’s fact sheet, are:

School districts are not special districts. A city school district uses the city’s population; a county district uses the county’s; an independent district uses the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates figure ADA.gov names.

• We know which row we are on.
• We are not working from a 2026 date in an old blog post. That was the original large-entity date. It is not the date on ADA.gov today.

After your date, meeting video you provide or make available on the web generally must meet WCAG 2.1 AA — including video you host on YouTube or another platform.

2. Livestream and the file you post are two rows

Most clerks livestream, then post a cleaned recording. Those are two success criteria. Do not sign them off as one.

Livestream — 1.2.4

• Real-time captions are on the stream, not only in a side chat.
• A resident watching live can turn captions on without a separate request.

Posted file — 1.2.2 and, where visuals carry meaning, 1.2.5

• Captions on the file you post are accurate and synchronized. Dialogue, speaker identification, and meaningful non-speech sound are in the track.
• Those captions are not the YouTube or Zoom auto track. Auto-captions miss names, motions, ordinance numbers, and roll-calls, and they do not satisfy 1.2.2. See YouTube auto-captions and WCAG 1.2.2.
• Section508.gov says not to rely solely on auto-captioning for prerecorded media. We are not doing that.
• Live 1.2.4 captions were a starting point only. Names and motion text guessed in real time were cleaned on the posted file.
• Audio description is present where the screen carried the decision — budgets, maps, slides, GIS, charts, exhibits. Talking-head stretches where the motion and vote were spoken often need little extra narration. Screen-share usually does. See audio description for government meetings.

3. Archive — all four tests, or it is not archived

ADA.gov’s fact sheet carves out archived web content only when all four of the following are true:

1. The content was created before your compliance date (or reproduces older physical media from before that date), and
2. It is kept only for reference, research, or recordkeeping, and
3. It is kept in a special area for archived content, and
4. It has not been changed since it was archived.

Miss any one point and the exception generally does not apply.

• This file is not still on the current meetings page — the same list residents use to follow this year’s business. Video sitting there is generally not “kept only for recordkeeping” in a designated archive. The exception usually does not cover it.
• A folder named “archive” is not the whole test. The video was not created after our date, is not used to conduct current business, and has not been edited or re-posted.
• If a pre-deadline recording truly lives in a designated archive, unchanged, and is kept only for reference, research, or recordkeeping, it may qualify. We have still noted Title II’s separate effective communication duty: if a resident with a disability asks for access, we still need a way to provide it. ADA.gov’s own example is captioning an archived city video on request.

4. Player and export

Captions and description that exist only in a clerk folder are not a program. Section508.gov’s synchronized-media page is about what the user can actually reach.

• Captions are available to the person watching the posted recording.
• Audio description is available to the person watching, where 1.2.5 applies.
• There is a searchable transcript, time-synced to the meeting, not only a video file.
• We can export caption, transcript, and audio-description files if we change hosts or need a copy for a request.
• An Accessibility Conformance Report (VPAT) for the player/product we use is available on request. We are not publishing a score we do not have.

Aware Lens, from AwareNow, Inc., returns reviewed captions, audio description where visuals matter, a searchable transcript, a plain-language summary, and Ask Aware from a YouTube link, Zoom recording, or MP4. You can push reviewed captions back to the channel you already use. Export anytime. A VPAT is available on request.

5. What to import first

Do not start with the entire history. Start with a file that will fail a visual check if you skip it.

1. One recent meeting with a screen-share. Budget, map, slide deck, or GIS. That recording exercises 1.2.2 and 1.2.5 together.
2. The live meetings list. Everything residents use to follow current business. Treat it as in-scope unless counsel says otherwise.
3. True archive triage. Run the four tests on what you are calling archived. Remediate what has to conform; keep a way to produce an accessible copy on request for what might be excepted.

Book a 20-minute demo. We will import one of your real recordings and hand back captions, audio description, a searchable transcript, and a summary.

Dates, criteria, and the product walkthrough are on ADA Title II meeting video.

Sources

• ADA.gov Title II web-rule fact sheet — deadlines (as amended by the April 2026 IFR) and the archived-content exception
• April 20, 2026 Interim Final Rule
• W3C Understanding 1.2.2 (WCAG 2.1)
• W3C Understanding 1.2.4 (WCAG 2.1)
• W3C Understanding 1.2.5 (WCAG 2.1)
• Section508.gov synchronized media

Product explanation, not legal advice.F.R. Part 35 and current ADA.gov materials before they go live.