What’s Changing Under Title II and How to Get Started

Maggie Grady: 0:03

Welcome to a special edition of the CATT Teaching Table Podcast, produced by the University of Buffalo's Office of Curriculum Assessment and Teaching Transformation, also known as CATT, and supported by the Genteel's Excellence and Teaching Fund. I'm Maggie Grady, Instructional Innovation Project Manager with CATT. This Teaching Table mini-series features short episodes designed to help faculty prepare for the upcoming ADA Title II regulation changes taking effect in April. Together we'll explore what these updates mean for teaching and learning at UB and share practical ways to make courses more accessible and inclusive. Joining me in these episodes is Sarah Guglielmi, CATT's Instructional Consultant for Accessible and Inclusive Pedagogy. Sarah works closely with faculty to design courses that are easy to navigate, inclusive, and aligned with accessibility best practices. So welcome, Sarah.

Sarah Guglielmi: 0:57

Thanks for having me, Maggie. It's great to be here. I'm excited to be here to talk about how accessible pedagogy can offer a more impactful learning experience for our students, including those with disabilities. That's what these upcoming changes to the ADA Title II regulations are all about.

Maggie Grady: 1:13

Well, let's start with the basics then. Title II is something a lot of us have heard of, but many of us don't fully understand. So what's changing, and can you tell our listeners why it's important for higher ed right now?

Sarah Guglielmi: 1:27

Sure. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is also known as the ADA, applies to public institutions like UB. It requires us to ensure that all our programs, services, and activities, including our digital environments, are accessible to people with disabilities. Recently, the Department of Justice finalized updates to the ADA Title II regulations that specify digital accessibility standards that go into law as of April 24th, 2026. These updates mean that public universities must ensure digital content, including digital course materials, meet a standard called WICAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level AA. I collaborate regularly with UB's EIT Accessibility Officer, and EIT stands for Electronic Information Technology. So our EIT Accessibility Officer is Mary Henesey from our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office. Mary's team has put together a fantastic summary of the regulations, and I encourage all of our faculty to take a look. We'll provide a link in the episode resources.

Maggie Grady: 2:36

So these regulations extend beyond the physical classroom. It's about how students access our digital course materials. Am I understanding that correctly?

Sarah Guglielmi: 2:45

Yes. More specifically, these regulations require the digital accessibility of faculty course materials to meet a higher standard. Digital accessibility refers to the technical makeup of a piece of digital content. For example, in a Microsoft Word file or a PDF document, the titles and the subtitles need to be created in a specific way so that they can be easily viewed on a range of digital devices and platforms. They also must be created in a way that allows the document to be compatible with different what are called assistive technologies, such as screen readers. If you've ever used a text-to-speech function on your computer, that's an example of a screen reader.

Maggie Grady: 3:23

So that makes sense. Can you share a few more examples of digital accessibility?

Sarah Guglielmi: 3:29

In addition to screen readers, some students use a keyboard instead of a mouse to navigate content. So digital content has to be created in a way that allows for that navigation to work. Also, choosing readable fonts and colors and offering accurate captions and transcripts are some other examples. It's a good time to mention that we all learn differently and we all benefit from digital accessibility, even if we don't have a disability. For example, if you've ever utilized the speed control settings or closed captions on a recorded video, those are digital accessibility features. It allows you to customize how you take in that information based on your own learning needs. The goal of digital accessibility is to make sure everyone can access and engage with the content equitably. These updated regulations give us clearer guidance and accountability around that goal.

Maggie Grady: 4:19

That sounds like a big shift for faculty. What are some realistic first steps?

Sarah Guglielmi: 4:24

Yeah, it definitely can feel like a lot, but there are some manageable first steps. So what I would start with is to suggest to faculty to familiarize themselves with the accessibility basics and accessibility features of the programs you most commonly use, like UB Learns, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and we'll put a link to UB's training resources in the episode notes. Each of these programs has an accessibility checker with embedded help menus that help you identify quick fixes like missing alternative text for an image or fixing poor color contrast. These checkers are not foolproof and they do have some limitations, but they are a great place to start. Next, I'd suggest faculty focus on their spring 2026 courses and just start with one course. You want to prioritize larger and online classes first, and just start with one document at a time. If you think of all the documents that potentially need to be remediated, that's will increase the overwhelm. So if you start with one Word document, one PowerPoint file, and one UBLearns course, that tends to get you going, get you some quick learning and wins, and then it gets less overwhelming over time. Next, I would ask for help. You can ask for help early, and you don't have to do this alone. Each unit has been assigned a unit faculty accessibility liaison who is available for questions and support. And you can also reach out to CATT. You can sign up for one of CATT' s virtual digital accessibility introductions or a digital accessibility office hour session. CATT also provides one-on-one support through our instructional support ticketing system. And again, we will put all these links in the episode notes for our faculty to check out.

Maggie Grady: 6:09

Great advice, and it makes it a little bit more manageable to break it down into those three action steps. What if someone listening is just realizing that their course might need a lot of updates? How can you avoid feeling overwhelmed or discouraged?.

Sarah Guglielmi: 6:26

Well, I can assure them they're not alone in these feelings. It's a very common concern. And one approach is to think about making progress and not perfection. You don't have to fix everything at once. And as I shared before, if you can keep coming back to starting with one document, one video, one module, each improvement will build your digital accessibility skills. And then as you mentioned, what happens over time, it becomes your habit, how to, what we do, we call it build accessible. So building accessible documents from the start, that will become the habit, and then the overwhelm is really reduced.

Maggie Grady: 7:03

Okay, so before we wrap up, I want to touch on the why. Beyond compliance, why should faculty care about accessibility?

Sarah Guglielmi: 7:12

Well, accessibility in the college classroom is fundamentally about creating learning experiences that are welcoming, equitable, and rigorous for the widest range of students. When we design content with accessibility in mind, we're ensuring that every student has the opportunity to learn and succeed. And the truth is, accessible design benefits everyone. Captions and transcripts help students who are learning in noisy environments, or those who prefer reading along. I prefer reading along because I retain information better through reading versus listening. I don't have a learning disability, but the captions improve my learning experience. Our students who are non-native English speakers, or students with an auditory processing disorder, also benefit from captions and transcripts. Their learning improves given the option to read content and to be able to go back and review at their own pace.

Maggie Grady: 8:05

So very well said, and we appreciate the advice. Sarah, thanks so much for joining us and breaking this down. This conversation really helps demystify the changing under Title II and how faculty can start taking action.

Sarah Guglielmi: 8:18

Thanks, Maggie. It's been great to be here. I encourage anyone who wants to learn more to visit CATT's Digital Accessibility for Instructors webpage and connect with our team. We are here to help you take the next step no matter where you're starting from.

Maggie Grady: 8:32

What a great start to our series. Be sure to tune in next month for episode two, How to Start Your Course Digital Accessibility Review. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Teaching Table Podcast. If you enjoyed today's discussion, be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. We'll be back soon with more conversation on teaching, learning, and technology. Until then, keep exploring new ways to reach and inspire your students. As always, be sure to connect with us online at buffalo.edu slash cat. That's C-A-T-T, or email us at ubcatt@ buffalo.edu.ry?