42 U.S.C. § 12101 · 29 U.S.C. § 794
ADA and Section 504
Prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and require access, accommodation, and an effective process for both. Section 504 reaches recipients of federal funds; the ADA reaches public entities and public accommodations regardless of funding.
What it covers
Accommodations
Reasonable modifications for students and employees, reached through a documented interactive process rather than a form and a decision.
Program accessibility
Programs, services, and activities usable by people with disabilities when viewed in their entirety.
Effective communication
Auxiliary aids and services so that communication is as effective as it is for others, including captioning and interpretation.
Digital accessibility
Websites, applications, documents, and course materials, now on a defined compliance timeline rather than an aspiration.
Who it applies to
- Section 504
- Any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, including nearly all public districts and most institutions of higher education.
- ADA Title II
- State and local government entities, including public districts, colleges, and universities, regardless of federal funding.
- ADA Title III
- Places of public accommodation, which reaches many private institutions.
- Enforcement
- The Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice, plus private litigation, which in the digital accessibility area has been substantial.
What has to be in place
The structural obligations, stated plainly. Specifics vary by institution and by state.
A designated coordinator
A named 504 and ADA coordinator, published, with the authority to decide.
Grievance procedure
A published route for disability complaints, distinct from the accommodation request process itself.
An interactive process
Documented, individualized, and iterative. A denial without a recorded interactive process is difficult to defend.
Accommodation records
What was requested, what was considered, what was decided, and why, retained.
Digital accessibility program
An inventory, a remediation plan against the applicable standard, and a procurement rule so the backlog stops growing.
Service animal and access practice
Staff who know the rules before the moment they are needed at a door.
Where it usually goes wrong
Two failures dominate. The first is deciding accommodations by category rather than individually, which is the opposite of what the law requires. The second is treating digital accessibility as a website project rather than an ongoing obligation covering documents, course materials, and anything newly procured, which is why remediated sites drift back out of compliance within a year.
Read the questions we getThis page is a general overview written by compliance practitioners, not legal advice. Fractional Coordinator is a civil rights compliance firm, not a law firm. Regulations change, and how a framework applies depends on your institution and your facts. Confirm with counsel before making an institutional decision.