The Justice Department’s Title II web accessibility rule is forcing colleges to accelerate remediation of websites, portals and digital forms to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards ahead of 2026 compliance deadlines. Higher‑ed IT and legal teams are being urged to inventory digital assets, remediate PDFs and video captions, and implement continuous monitoring before the larger compliance windows begin. University Business webinars and industry briefings are warning that achieving compliance takes months, not weeks. Institutions should prioritize high‑traffic student‑facing systems, procurement clauses for vendors and staff workflows for ongoing testing. Failure to act risks litigation, OCR complaints and potential loss of access to federal funds. Campus leaders say the regulatory timeline compresses IT budgets and forces tradeoffs between modernization projects and remediation efforts. The sector is now treating accessibility as a cross‑functional priority that requires coordination among registrars, disability services, IT security and procurement to avoid legal exposure and ensure equitable access for students with disabilities.