DOJ Accessibility Complaint Response Playbook
A complaint reviews your whole site, not the one page a resident reported. Here's exactly what to pull together, in what order, before an investigator asks for it.
Days 1-3: Stop the Bleeding
Acknowledge receipt of the complaint in writing within 2 business daysDay 1-3
A fast, professional acknowledgment is itself evidence of a functioning process. Silence reads as indifference.
Identify and fix the specific reported issue immediately, if fixable in hoursDay 1-3
Don't wait for the full investigation to close a simple gap, like a missing label on one form. Fixing it fast shows good faith and shrinks the scope of what's still open.
Loop in your ADA coordinator or accessibility officer and legal counselDay 1-3
This stops being a web team problem the moment it's formal. Get the right people in the room before, not after, documents go out the door.
Days 4-7: Assemble What Investigators Will Ask For
If your CMS tracks this automatically, this section takes an afternoon. If it doesn't, budget a full week to reconstruct it from old emails.
Pull your written accessibility policy, with its last review date
If it doesn't exist or hasn't been reviewed in over a year, that's a gap to address before it's pointed out for you.
Pull staff training records: who, on what, and when
Documented training is evidence of a good-faith program. Undocumented training, even if it happened, is functionally invisible to an investigator.
Pull your remediation log: what's been found and fixed, with dates
A dated log showing ongoing work is worth more than a clean-looking site with no history behind it.
Pull your most recent PDF and page accessibility scan results
If you haven't run one recently, run one now. Walking into a response with current data beats walking in blind.
Days 8-10: Draft the Response
State what was found and what's already been fixed, with dates
Lead with the concrete timeline, not a general statement of commitment to accessibility.
Include a remediation plan with specific deadlines for anything still open
Vague promises extend scrutiny. A dated plan, even an imperfect one, tends to shorten it.
Name a single point of contact for any follow-up questions
Investigators move faster when they have one person to reach, not a general inbox.
Days 11-30: The Monitoring Period Begins
Set a recurring internal review date matching the agency's reporting schedule
Most resolution agreements run on a quarterly reporting cycle. Put that date on a calendar now, not when the first report is already overdue.
Assign one person to own the file for the life of the monitoring period
Investigations that drag often do so because ownership quietly shifted between three people and nobody had the full picture anymore.
Keep every piece of correspondence in one place, dated
A single folder, not scattered across individual inboxes. The person who owns this today may not be the person answering a follow-up request next year.
What Not to Do
Don't go silent while you investigate internally
A delayed acknowledgment reads as avoidance even when the delay is just thorough fact-finding. Acknowledge first, investigate second.
Don't promise a fix date you haven't confirmed with IT
A missed self-imposed deadline looks worse than a realistic one stated up front. Check before you commit to a date in writing.
Don't respond page by page if the request covers the whole site
Answering only the narrow question asked, when the investigator clearly requested broader documentation, reads as evasive and usually triggers a follow-up request anyway.
Sample Opening Language for Your Written Response
Draft, not legal advice. Have counsel review before sending.
"Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. [Agency] takes digital accessibility seriously and has already taken the following steps: [specific fix], completed on [date]. Enclosed please find our current accessibility policy, dated [date], our staff training records for [period], and a remediation log documenting [number] completed fixes since [date]. We are committed to full WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance and welcome the opportunity to discuss our remediation plan in further detail."
Related Reading
Build the Remediation Log Before You Need It
WPPersona keeps a dated log of every fix automatically, so days 4 through 7 above take an afternoon instead of a week of digging through old emails.
Schedule a Free Demo