As we move closer to the April 2026 deadline for compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act Title II Regulations we will be sharing resources and suggestions to help our members with this big task.
This compliance applies to all programs, services, and activities of state and local governments and focuses on all digital content. This includes public education, public higher education and libraries, among others.
We see large amounts of information regarding Title II on a weekly and sometimes daily basis and wanted to share some of the highlights with you. Here are some helpful tools and ideas to share!
First, our friends at SETDA (State Educational Technology Directors Association) are following this topic closely and have shared some guidelines posted by NCADEMI (National Center on Accessible Digital Educational Materials & Instruction) about creating accessible documents. These simple, easy to read guidelines are great to share with staff and cover really helpful tips for fixing the most common errors like using color only for emphasis.
Next, one big and slightly confusing question is about when, where, how (and why) to use Alt tags on images. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines produced by W3C are the standard for the rules we need to follow. Their Alt Decision Tree does a great job of giving example use cases and what amount of Alt Text to use for each.
Finally, a design tool we use for our Canvas courses at MOREnet is Cidilabs. They provide a monthly newsletter for their users that covers all things accessibility. This month they shared some ways that higher education institutions are encouraging their staff by adding a bit of fun and competition to making content accessible:
- Northwestern University has dubbed a segment of their accessibility initiative “Mission: Accessible” and maintains a public Hall of Fame page for educators who complete the challenge.
- Foothill College developed a 10-Day Accessibility Challenge video series, kickstarting their institution’s accessibility work with fun framing and a manageable process.
- Duke University’s UDOIT Superstar Badge recognizes educators’ efforts in improving accessibility using UDOIT by awarding a high-quality, verifiable digital badge. NOTE: UDOIT is a Cidilabs product, but creating badges and awards for accessible content is a great way to get your instructors involved!
As we find more ideas for helping you with Title II we will share them here!