Social-media lead warns Levy County schools: DOJ rule means WCAG compliance by 2028 or legal risk
May 29, 2026 | Levy, School Districts, Florida
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Chelsea Graham, the district s social-media lead, told the Levy County School Board that a U.S. Department of Justice final rule (issued April 2024, as she described it) effectively requires school districts to use web-content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) for websites, social media, PDFs, images and video.
Graham said the district s compliance date is April 26, 2028, and urged the board not to delay work: she recommended auditing high-traffic pages, prioritizing fixes, training staff who post content and maintaining accessibility as an ongoing activity. She flagged common problems—missing alt text on images, PDFs that are not screen-reader friendly, poor color contrast and videos without captions—and gave operational guidance such as limiting social-media posts to 10 photos or fewer per post to keep captioning and alt-text work manageable.
Graham described partnerships and practical steps the district plans to use, including auditing tools and training for school-based PR staff. She said some community and vendor partners (FWC, Coast Guard and others mentioned in the presentation as partners for school programs) have already helped with specific classroom activities; for accessibility the district will prioritize district and school pages and work to re-post booster or third-party content from the district s own accounts when necessary.
On legal exposure, Graham said that lawsuits and settlements are a risk if posts are not accessible and cited an initial figure the district should be aware of ( $75,000 for a first case, rising to $175,000 in later cases) based on examples discussed in her training webinars; she framed these as potential legal costs rather than inevitabilities. Graham urged the board to begin audits, fix the fundamentals, train staff and monitor compliance on an ongoing basis.
The district will phase work across pages and schools and provide staff development so that social-media and website managers can meet the WCAG standards before the compliance date.
Graham said the district s compliance date is April 26, 2028, and urged the board not to delay work: she recommended auditing high-traffic pages, prioritizing fixes, training staff who post content and maintaining accessibility as an ongoing activity. She flagged common problems—missing alt text on images, PDFs that are not screen-reader friendly, poor color contrast and videos without captions—and gave operational guidance such as limiting social-media posts to 10 photos or fewer per post to keep captioning and alt-text work manageable.
Graham described partnerships and practical steps the district plans to use, including auditing tools and training for school-based PR staff. She said some community and vendor partners (FWC, Coast Guard and others mentioned in the presentation as partners for school programs) have already helped with specific classroom activities; for accessibility the district will prioritize district and school pages and work to re-post booster or third-party content from the district s own accounts when necessary.
On legal exposure, Graham said that lawsuits and settlements are a risk if posts are not accessible and cited an initial figure the district should be aware of ( $75,000 for a first case, rising to $175,000 in later cases) based on examples discussed in her training webinars; she framed these as potential legal costs rather than inevitabilities. Graham urged the board to begin audits, fix the fundamentals, train staff and monitor compliance on an ongoing basis.
The district will phase work across pages and schools and provide staff development so that social-media and website managers can meet the WCAG standards before the compliance date.
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