The U.S. Department of Justice delayed the federal deadline for public colleges to meet stricter Americans With Disabilities Act website and digital accessibility standards. In an interim final rule published Monday, DOJ extended the effective date by one year, pushing most public colleges’ compliance deadline to April 26, 2027, and giving small entities until April 26, 2028. The rule applies to Title II obligations that have long covered accessibility, but raises the technical bar for institutions’ digital ecosystems, including learning-management systems, course materials, and large inventories of web pages. DOJ cited “circumstances beyond the department’s control” and explicitly referenced concerns raised by higher-education groups and cost estimates from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. For campus IT, compliance offices, and legal teams, the extension reduces the immediate risk of penalties tied to the new standards and provides additional time to coordinate updates across systems rather than treating compliance as a single website revision. It also signals that the federal government is still calibrating the implementation burden for large, decentralized digital footprints. Key actors referenced in the rollout include the American Council on Education, which urged the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies to delay deadlines or provide clearer guidance. The temporary reprieve is likely to affect institutional project timelines, vendor contracting, and internal accessibility testing cycles across multi-campus systems.