Preparing UB Course Content for Accessibility Requirements

Dear UB Faculty,

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice published updated regulations clarifying how Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to digital content at public colleges and universities. The new rules significantly expand digital accessibility requirements for the University at Buffalo as a public institution, impacting all university units and functions, including academic, administrative, athletic, and research. The revised rule mandates that all web content and mobile apps (digital content) must:

• Be readily accessible to and useable by people with disabilities upfront; and
• Meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards—the most widely accepted global benchmark for digital accessibility—by April 24, 2026.

The revised regulations:

• Apply to all public-facing, student-facing, and employee-facing content, whether provided directly by the university or through third parties. This includes departmental sites and faculty pages, including both public sites and websites or webpages behind a login; mobile apps used to access course materials, submit assignments, or participate in forums.
• Apply to all faculty-created digital course materials including syllabi, readings, videos, slides, UB Learns pages, online assessments and more. This includes PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents that are used for instructional or informational purposes; e-books and academic journals available online.
• Cover learning management systems like Brightspace and e-learning and online courses such as online course content and platforms.
• Require captions, readable documents, alternative text for images, and accessible navigation. This includes multimedia content such as online video lectures, webinars, and instructional videos; audio recordings and podcasts; live streamed and recorded events and conferences.
• Allow limited exceptions (e.g., for archived or legacy content not currently used for active instruction).

While UB has already been required to ensure students with disabilities can access course materials under the current regulations, these new requirements necessitate a fundamental culture shift—from a reactive approach, responding to individual accommodation requests—to proactively ensuring all digital content is accessible from the start. We must continue meeting these requirements while working to fully integrate accessibility into our practices, reflecting our shared values of inclusion that help define the University at Buffalo.

Campus compliance with the ADA is a shared responsibility and faculty members play an important role in the university’s efforts by providing accessible course materials and digital content. As the creators and stewards of course content, you are responsible for ensuring students with disabilities aren’t excluded. Small actions—like writing descriptive link text or uploading a tagged PDF—can remove major barriers for students. 

Faculty members are unlikely to face direct personal legal liability under Title II of the ADA, but they may be personally named in legal actions brought under state law for related violations of student’s rights. SUNY provides defense and indemnification so long as the actions of the faculty giving rise to the complaint adhered to University policy. Faculty may also be subject to disciplinary action for breaches of University policy.

• Each unit has identified a Unit Faculty Accessibility Liaison to support this effort. Look for upcoming communications from your liaison, the Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation and the Equity Diversity and Inclusion offices detailing the next steps and training opportunities.
• Review Building Accessible Content on the Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation website.
• Review Creating Accessible Content on the Accessibility at UB website.