Research
How many public colleges run a chatbot?
63 of 147 public colleges we checked in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida show a chatbot on their website. That is 43%. Each one falls under the ADA Title II web rule, which sets WCAG 2.1 AA.
Counts by state
Scanned November 7, 2026. Public, degree-granting colleges from the federal IPEDS directory.
| State | Colleges checked | Show a chatbot | Share | Use an accessibility overlay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 46 | 20 | 43% | 4 |
| Tennessee | 22 | 14 | 64% | 2 |
| Alabama | 39 | 12 | 31% | 8 |
| Florida | 40 | 17 | 43% | 5 |
| Total | 147 | 63 | 43% | 19 |
What the numbers say
- Chatbots are common. Most were built by a small number of companies, so one product often serves many colleges.
- 19 colleges use an accessibility overlay. An overlay changes how a page looks or reads. It does not test the chatbot inside the page.
- A chatbot is software students use to ask about aid, admission and deadlines. It needs the same checks as the rest of the site.
How we counted
- We loaded each college's homepage, financial aid page and application page in a headless browser and recorded which outside scripts the page requested.
- We matched those script addresses against known chat and overlay products. We never opened, clicked or typed into a chatbot.
- Our crawler identifies itself as SysWisdomResearchBot, follows robots.txt and waits between requests.
- We store counts only. This page names no college and no company.
Limits
- The counts are a floor. A chatbot that appears only on other pages, or only after a click, is missed.
- This is not a test of any college's chatbot. Showing a chatbot says nothing about whether it is accessible.
- 8 college sites did not load and 1 asked crawlers not to visit. Neither is counted.
Want to know how your own chatbot does? Run the free check for colleges or read the ADA Title II FAQ.