Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been updated to require full compliance with rules that specify the accessibility requirements of digital content by April 24, 2026. Specifically, the requirement is to meet WCAG 2.1 AA level guidelines.
UAB is working campus-wide to address these requirements through the UAB Digital Accessibility committee. This group comprised of Marketing and Communications, DSS, and IT, among other groups, is working to ensure that general university content on the web, online tools, in videos, and elsewhere is compliant while the Office of Learning Technologies (OLT) is leading the effort to assist faculty with their academic digital content.
April 24 is the last day of classes for our spring semester, but we are advised that content in spring courses should nevertheless be accessible by that date. However, a more important goal is to ensure that summer courses are fully accessible by the first day of the summer term, May 11.
Faculty are responsible for the digital content they require students to use in whatever modality of the class—online, hybrid, or classroom. If content is digital, it should be accessible. This includes, but is not limited to, web pages, PDFs and other documents, videos, and the applications and tools required to access them such as Canvas.
What is UAB doing to help faculty?
The Office of Learning Technologies is providing a robust set of resources to help faculty meet the goal of fully accessible content for students.
Accessibility tool
A new tool will be available in Canvas in January which will identify accessibility issues with most content and provide a mechanism for fixing these issues right inside Canvas. For most tasks, this process should be clear and straightforward. OLT will provide a range of training options for learning more about this tool when it becomes available. Faculty will be able to see an accessibility score for an entire course as well as individual elements in it. Likewise, both chairs and deans will have access to accessibility reports for courses in their domain.
Support and Resources
OLT is also gearing up to provide direct support to faculty in understanding the accessibility requirements and adjusting content as needed. More about these resources will be available in spring.
For now, as you create new content, follow this quick start guide that addresses some of the primary ways you can create accessible content. While this does not address every standard of digital accessibility, it covers important and relatively easy things you can do on your own to create content that meets accessibility requirements. See also this list of currently available Testing Tools & Checkers for checking your content.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Do I have to worry about accessibility if I do not teach any online courses?
The Title II rule says nothing about course modalities. If you provide students with digital content in any kind of course, it should be accessible. So in a traditional course, hybrid, fully online or any place you provide digital content, that content should meet accessibility guidelines.
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Why do we have to work on Spring 2026 courses if the rule goes into effect on the last day of the semester?
The rule is effective on April 26, 2026, so UAB is required to be compliant with the rule on that day and through exam week. But if you have summer courses, it is more important that you ensure those courses are fully compliant on the first day of summer semester. At the very least, you should ensure that all students who need accommodations have them as of April 26 and that all students are aware of how to report accommodation issues with any course content.
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How can I receive support from the Office of Learning Technologies?
Two things. First, the Panorama tool provided to you inside Canvas will point out to you most things that need to be changed to meet accessibility guidelines and also provide guidance and a way to fix them right where they are in your course. Second, OLT is available to support you in this process by answering questions, and as necessary and to the degree possible, work to assist you in remediating content that you cannot manage to fix.
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I only teach clinical courses with little digital content. Do I have to worry about this?
If you provide any content to students (documents in any form, videos, webpages, etc.), whatever the context, it should meet accessibility standards. Of course, the less content you have, the less need there will be to remediate it.
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What do I do if I do not know how to fix an accessibility issue?
If the suggestions and guidance provided by Panorama inside Canvas do not address your questions, reach out to OLT for assistance.
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Do I need to comply with Title II if no student has informed me that they need an accommodation for a disability?
Title II was written to make it unnecessary for students to have to ask for accommodations to access digital content. The rule is an attempt to proactively make access to content equitable for those with disabilities. Many of the accessibility standards are also good for all students regardless of ability. Closed captioned videos, and high contrast text-to-background color are examples of accessibility standards that can benefit all students.
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Are we going to have to do this forever?
Unless the law changes, we are obligated to continue providing accessible digital content going forward. But remediating existing content is something that should subside within a year or two as we fix that content. As you learn more about creating accessible content, your new content in the future should be created with accessibility in mind so that this kind of remediation will not be necessary. OLT will provide resources for learning more about how to create accessible content.