New federal digital accessibility deadline: What OHIO faculty need to know

On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) establishing clear digital accessibility requirements for state and local governments, including public universities. The rule identifies Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the required technical standard for web and mobile content.

As a public institution serving more than 50,000 people (under the state of Ohio), Ohio University’s compliance deadline is April 24, 2026. This federal action reinforces our shared responsibility to ensure that digital learning environments, instructional materials and university services are usable by everyone, including students with disabilities.

“The Title II rule makes clear that digital accessibility is not optional for public universities,” says Kerri Griffin, OHIO’s ADA/504 coordinator. “This deadline gives us a shared timeline and a clear standard, so we can be intentional and consistent about meeting our obligations.

What can you do to help?

Focus on the 7 Core Skills for Digital Accessibility

OHIO faculty play a critical role in meeting this standard. To make progress achievable and practical, the OHIO Digital Accessibility Network (OHIO DAN) is focusing on the 7 Core Skills for Digital Accessibility; the accessibility practices most closely tied to everyday teaching and content creation.

If you need support, instructional technologists from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) are available to help, including recommending accessible options within Canvas LMS and advising on approachable ways to apply these practices in your courses.

The 7 Core Skills are a subset of the 50 WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria and represent a strong starting point:

• Use headings for clarity and logical structure
  Help students navigate content easily, including those using screen readers.
• Write meaningful alt text for images
  Ensure images communicate their purpose when they can’t be seen.
• Maintain sufficient color contrast
  Improve readability for students with low vision or colorblindness.
• Format lists correctly
  Use built-in list tools so relationships between items are clear.
• Create descriptive links
  Make links meaningful without relying on “click here.”
• Design accessible tables
  Use tables only for data, with clear headers that define relationships.
• Provide accurate captions and transcripts for video and audio
  Support students who are deaf, hard of hearing, or learning in varied environments.

Progress through collaboration

Significant accessibility work has already been underway through collaboration among University Communications and Marketing (UCM), Accessibility Services, OIT and campus partners—and faculty engagement has been essential to that progress.

Thank you to everyone who has supported:

• The PDF purge project, reducing inaccessible legacy documents on the ohio.edu Drupal website
• Ongoing document audits throughout the entire ohio.edu Drupal website, transitioning content to digital forms and/or HTML webpages
• Website accessibility updates that improve structure, readability and usability including site-wide template developments, document upload requirements and restrictions, and ongoing communications
• Digital accessibility champions in the OHIO DAN and website editors/publishers in the Web Editors Forum who attend sessions consistently and learn how to create more accessible content. These collective actions are already improving the learning experience for students who rely on accessible digital materials.

“Thinking differently about how web content is presented, like using built-in native features instead of linked Word documents, PDFs and PowerPoint presentations, allows for better navigation and a better user experience,” says Shelli Minton, web CMS training and support manager for University Communications and Marketing. “Following the 7 Core Skills improves universal design and makes consuming information easier for everyone.”

Building accessibility into everyday teaching

To reinforce these practices where faculty work most, the University is launching a digital accessibility awareness campaign in the Canvas LMS. Faculty will see reminders and short, targeted resources that connect the 7 Core Skills directly to common instructional workflows such as creating pages, uploading documents, organizing content and sharing media.

“The 7 Core Skills help us remember that not everyone who needs to understand our digital content can see it, hear it or use a mouse to interact with it—and that accessibility needs to be built into our work from the start,” explained Eszti Major-Rohrer, senior director for teaching and learning technologies.

Join the OHIO Digital Accessibility Network

Students, faculty and staff across all campuses are invited to participate in the OHIO Digital Accessibility Network (OHIO DAN). This community will spend the year building confidence with the 7 Core Skills through hands-on workshops, peer discussion, and shared resources.

If you create digital materials for teaching and learning like course content, documents, websites or multimedia, then your participation matters.