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Digital Services and Open Education Resources Unit: Accessibility of Digital Content

DS+OER unit guide to all services and support.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are federal laws that require public postsecondary institutions to provide, to all qualified individuals, access to institutional programs and services including course content.  Accessible digital content guided by universal design principles will benefit all and significantly reduce the need to retrofit content. 

The best time to introduce universal design principles is during the creation, revamp, or update of digital content. Universal design refers to the creation of environments that are inherently accessible to a wide range of people including people with disabilities. When applying universal design principles individuals should consider:  different browsers; screen resolutions; disabled extensions/services; different devices; different formats; disability access; and navigation.

Additionally, in 2024 the ADA Title II New Regulation was released by the Department of Justice, defining compliance to Title II.  ADA Title II is specifically for public institutions, governments, etc.​ The rule specifies how to comply, and the penalties are all the same. Specifically, the rule covers the following:

Web & Mobile Apps content ​

  • Made by public institutions or the contractors we use to make content for public institutions ​

Provided or made available ​

Directly or through contracts​

Even if the contractor is private​

  • Videos, PDF, Webpages, Forms, Kiosks, etc.​
  • Web content: Anything posted on the web. Includes Social Media.​
  • Mobile Apps: Software/Apps for mobile devices​

For further information on Title II, see the additional box on this guide.

External Resources:

The following are Federal and State policies, guides, and standards:

The DOJ Fact Sheet

The World Wide Web Consortium or W3C is the international standards organization for the World Wide Web.  The Web Accessibility Initiative is the section of the W3C that is responsible for the strategies, guidelines, and resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities: Web Accessibility page of W3.org.

United States Access Board Guidelines and Standards: Web page of US Access Board Guidelines and Standards

18F Technology Consultant to US Government: 18F Accessibility Guide

ADA.gov: ADA Standards for Accessible Design

Accommodations should not compromise the academic quality of the course or digital content. 

2024 Department of Justice ADA Rule Update

From the ADA.GOV Website

On April 24, 2024, the Federal Register published the Department of Justice’s (Department) final rule updating its regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The final rule has specific requirements about how to ensure that web content and mobile applications (apps) are accessible to people with disabilities.

This Factsheet from the DOJ gives an overview of the requirements of the rule and the exceptions to it. Institutions have until April 24th 2026 if they are part of government entities with over 50,000 constituents, and until April 24th 2027 if they have less than 50,000. For institutions of higher education, this is calculated not by number of students but by the populations the government they are part of rules over. As all state schools are part of state governments, this means all state institutions have until the 2026 date to reach compliance.

Looking Ahead

While a new administration may have the power to negate this particular DOJ ruling, the Title II of the ADA is settled law that cannot be negated so easily. Compliance will still be necessary as quickly as can be achieved; unfortunately, if the rule is removed, any violation could be sued with full damages that day--there will not be a grace period for compliance dates.

This may seem like an area that you don’t have to worry about, but there are several different things to consider when looking at text for your course content. The first and most important is to see if the file and its content have been scanned or saved as an image or text file.  If saved as an image (jpg, png, etc), a text file will need to be created.  In addition to being saved as a text file, your content should be searchable or have optical character recognition (OCR).  An easy way to identify this is to try to copy and paste the text.  If your mouse cursor turns into cross-hairs, then you have image- based content and you will need a new file.  If your mouse selects the text, you will still want to copy and paste the text content into a new document to ensure that the text is readable content and not random characters/symbols.  In addition to having a readable text file, individuals will need to review the text file for document structure or the order in which elements are accessed through screen reading technology. This is required so that students receive the content in the correct order. To ensure that this happens one should consider the following:

  • Proper use of headings allows adaptive technology navigation.
  • Lists should only be numerical when order matters.
  • Ensure a text-to-speech program can read the content out loud to the student. 

Link text should be descriptive and let the user know exactly what the link is for and where it will take them. Links to files, other than html, should include the file type in parentheses after the link name.  Ex:  “Cultivating Textbook Alternatives From the Ground Up: One Public University’s Sustainable Model for Open and Alternative Educational Resource Proliferation” (PDF)

Links should open in the same window, unless the user would lose content or information already entered.  In this case, you must notify the student if the link opens to a new window.

 

 

All images should have an alt tag.  The alt tag should relay the educational and informative purpose for the inclusion of the image.  When using many accessibility tools alt tags may be added to your images, but please note the auto-added alt-tags are usually just the name the file used to embed the image. Image_345.jpg is not very informative or educational and therefore it is suggested that faculty do not use auto-added alt-tags.  However, these tools can be used to quickly identify all images within our file and assist with adding an educational and informative alt-tag.

 

 

Check all content videos for captioning.  Individuals should use videos that are closed captioned.  If not captioned, available captions should be added to the video or a transcript must be provided.  Closed Captions are preferred.

  • Videos with English subtitles are acceptable.
  • When purchasing new videos buy pre-captioned content.  
  • Captioned videos should be labeled with one of the Closed Caption symbols: 

Captioned Video Tips: 

  • Captioning capabilities may need to be turned on with the TV or other device.  Be aware of how to turn on the closed captioning on equipment being used in the classroom.  This should be done well in advance of the first day of class in case any technical difficulties arise.
  • If you have created YouTube videos you may be able to caption your own YouTube clips, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6373554?hl=en.   
  • If you need to add captions to video a transcript is usually required.  Once a transcript is available, captions can be added to the video.  To get a transcript you may:
    • Request vendor provide accessible version
    • Create the transcribed text yourself.
    • Have a student worker or teaching assistant create the transcription.
    • Seek departmental or other funding to pay a vendor to transcribe the video.

Lecture Video Tips:

  • Do not cover your mouth or face.  It makes it impossible to read lips.
  • Do not use exaggerated lip movements, speak normally
  • Speaking louder does not help
  • Be aware of lighting:
    • Sufficient lighting is needed to see the speaker
    • Do not stand in front of windows or sources of bright light

Who may be able to help?