ATI Newsletters & Communications

Our campus community has made meaningful progress toward improving digital accessibility and supporting compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Title II. This work reflects a strong, shared commitment across faculty, staff, and support teams.  

The updated U.S. Department of Justice Title II regulations requires all public education institutions to ensure that digital course content is fully accessible by April 26, 2027. We ask faculty to ensure that courses and learning materials shared with students are accessible according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.  The Division of IT (DoIT) and Academic Technology Services (ATS) are here to support faculty every step of the way.

What Faculty Can Do This Summer 

As you prepare your next course(s), follow the recommendations below to ensure your content and materials meet compliance. It takes just a few minutes to get started:

1. Clean up your course using TidyUP
   Open TidyUP in your Canvas course to remove unused or duplicate content. This step alone can significantly reduce the amount of remediation needed later and give you an accurate UDOIT accessibility baseline score.
    
2. Run an accessibility scan with UDOIT
   Scan your course with UDOIT to identify inaccessible content and generate an accessibility score. To access UDOIT in Canvas:
   1. Select "Settings" in your course.
   2. Select the Navigation tab.
   3. Drag UDOIT to the top section, and save.
       
3. Remediate the “Easy Fixes” in UDOIT
   Once your course is scanned for accessibility, UDOIT will guide you through remediating your course. Start by selecting the “Easiest to Fix” items for quick progress. Follow the guided steps to work through remediating the easiest accessibility issues.

Take the Next Steps

Set goals for making changes throughout the year.
The transition to these new accessibility requirements is complex and may seem overwhelming. Use the extended deadline to gradually make necessary changes. Focus on one area at a time. Reach out to campus staff for help. Continue in your learning path towards greater familiarity with accessibility concerns. We are all in this together!

Attend training sessions on accessibility best practices.
ATS offers live sessions and recordings on accessible course design. Attend live workshops or visit our Accessibility playlist on Mediaspace.

Follow accessibility best practices as you develop new content.
Follow guidance for creating content using Accessibility HELPS, review previous ADA Title II and You newsletters, and bookmark the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to become familiar with the essentials. 

Level up your skills.
Learn how to remediate your own Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files. Use video in your course? High-quality auto-captions can be added to your own videos using My Media (Kaltura) and even ones you don't using Beach Captions.