With the recent update to the ADA mandating that all digital materials, including course content, be fully accessible by April 2026, what steps is the administration taking to support faculty in making their materials accessible to all students? We are committed to offering an equitable learning experience for everyone. Will leadership invest in the necessary tools and resources, including additional personnel, to assist faculty in this important transition?
Thank you for this question. Across OHIO, we share your commitment to offering an equitable learning experience for everyone, and there is already a significant amount of collective work happening across the institution to not only ensure the ADA’s requirements and deadlines are met, but that our ohio.edu website continually improves for all users.
Specific to faculty, OHIO’s Office for Information Technology offers faculty-focused resources for managing and delivering accessible course content, including universal techniques to help improve the overall accessibility of the digital materials that are provided to your students.
If you have specific questions about your departmental website and/or the ways you can help ensure you are offering accessible documents, we encourage you to contact webcontent@ohio.edu for guidance and support.
More broadly, OHIO has also shared a digital accessibility update with the University community that included the action steps that we are taking to help us remain in compliance with ADA requirements, including:
- A new Web CMS User Policy in March 2024 to ensure our continued compliance with the ADA under Title II. Some items of note in the Web CMS User Policy include making sure content is updated regularly to ensure content accuracy, that brand standards are followed and that digital accessibility laws are followed.
- A digital accessibility and remediation timeline to help move our collective work forward.