2 posts tagged with "Section 504"

Across school districts, high school television stations, and student-run media programs, communicators are asking the same questions in public forums: How do we caption live concerts, student-led home-room broadcasts, and games and competitions when nothing is scripted? How do we keep up in post-production on the Monday after when students and advisers are already stretched thin? Is “upload to YouTube later” enough? How do real teams balance accessibility expectations against staffing?

This article answers those questions directly and explains how Recap Innovations supports each concern in one platform, from the live encoder to the archived episode on your website.

Update: HHS extended the compliance dates (May 2026)​

On May 7, 2026, HHS announced that the Office for Civil Rights issued an interim final rule extending Section 504 web, mobile app, and kiosk accessibility compliance dates by one year. Recipients with 15 or more employees must now conform by May 11, 2027 (previously May 11, 2026). Smaller recipients have until May 10, 2028 (previously May 10, 2027). See the official HHS announcement.

The sections below explain what the underlying 2024 rule requires for video and kiosks; deadline references in this article reflect the revised 2027 and 2028 dates above unless clearly marked as historical.

On May 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule updating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The rule requires recipients of HHS federal funding to make their web content, mobile applications, and kiosks accessible to people with disabilities by conforming to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. After the May 2026 extension, larger recipients (15 or more employees) must comply by May 11, 2027, and smaller recipients by May 10, 2028.

The DOJ also extended ADA Title II web accessibility compliance dates by a year. Many organizations must plan for both schedules: a public entity may get extra time under Title II for some digital properties while HHS-funded programs still follow the Section 504 dates in the Update section above.