Digital Accessibility

• The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a new digital accessibility rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This rule mandates that public universities ensure their digital tools, including internal and external websites and mobile applications, are accessible and meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA standard. The University must comply with the rule by April 24, 2026. A DOJ fact sheet summarizing this new rule is available.
  
  
• The Universities of Wisconsin shares that accessible content opens the doors to transformative learning experiences and it is everyone's responsibility. 
  
  
• At UWL, we will use this rule as an opportunity to be proactive in creating accessible learning experiences, environments, content, and spaces to reduce learning barriers for all students. 

• This rule mandates that public universities ensure their digital tools, including internal and external websites and mobile applications, are accessible and meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA standard. 
  
  
• Under the new rule, technology must be readily accessible and usable by disabled individuals at the same time as to nondisabled individuals. Alternate versions or workarounds for inaccessible technology are no longer sufficient. 
  
  
• Course content must be treated the same as any other web or mobile application content. Any content in Canvas needs to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. This includes learning platforms, digital resources, documents, and media.
  
  
• There is a campus steering committee working to ensure UWL prepares for the compliance deadline of April 24, 2026. 

Academic Affairs is focusing on a two-phased approach to meeting the April 24, 2026 deadline. 

Phase 1: Accessibility with Canvas course content
Summer 2025 and Fall 2025

Phase 2: Accessibility with documents and videos 
Fall 2025 and Spring 2026

During Phase 1, the focus is on (1) raising instructor awareness of accessible design through training and resources, and (2) creating accessible content in Canvas by completing UDOIT scans on Fall 2025 courses and fixing identified issues. All instructors will receive communication from the Provost at the end of Spring 2025 that will include a link to this website and the self-paced training, as well as information about the support plan offering assistance from the CATL staff during summer 2025 to complete a UDOIT scan and fix non-content specific issues.

It is important for all instructors to learn about how to create accessible content.

Self-paced Training: There are 7 course skills related to accessibility that are largely transferrable to various digital content creation. The 7 skills, as well as specific ways to create accessible documents, PDFs, Canvas courses, etc. are covered in the self-paced training. It is estimated that the training will take 2-3 hours to complete. Once you complete the training, you can refer back to the training as you adjust your course content. 

Resources: This website lists several reliable websites where you can review key information and resources to help meet accessibility requirements. Also remember to rely on built-in accessibility review features by platform. 

In-Person Learning: CATL will provide consultations at Assessment Hunker, weekly office hours throughout most of the summer, and professional development week (the week before Fall 2025 meetings week). 

Fall 2025 courses are available in Canvas. Start creating your Fall 2025 course content now by either copying over a prior course (i.e. rollover) or building the content.

NOTE: Your course does not need to fully ready in order to move on to the next step! UDOIT scans the HTML of these content items: Announcements, Assignments, Classic Quiz Instructions, Discussions, Pages, Syllabus (the area in Canvas, not an attached syllabus file!), and Module URLs. Don't worry about due dates at this time; those can be added later. 

Help us help you!

• Only copy over the content you are still using. Leave archived content in your past courses. 
• Do you teach multiple sections of the same course? Tell us to scan only one of your courses and opt out of the others.
  • Once we have one scan complete, you'll have one section complete (or with a few additional issues only you can fix due to the document listed above), and then you can copy a completely accessible course to the rest of your sections!

You will receive an email with a survey for each course you are record for teaching in Fall 2025. Complete the survey for each course to indicate either that your course is ready for CATL to run an initial* UDOIT scan on OR that you are agreeing to run the scan/make the fixes on your own. 

• Deadline 1: Complete the survey by May 23 and CATL guarantees scanning/fixing content-neutral errors.
• Deadline 2: Complete the survey by June 13 and CATL will scan/fix content-neutral errors as time allows on a first come first served basis.
• Between June 14 and August 8 you can complete the survey and ask for CATL to scan/fix but we will only get to it as time allows.

These dates are set because of the scope of this project and our staff availability. We appreciate your understanding.

NOTES:

• Curious what CATL will and won't fix?  This document provides a list.
• Summer 2025 is the only time CATL staff will be offering do these scans on your behalf. 
• UDOIT scans the HTML of these content items: Announcements, Assignments, Classic Quiz Instructions, Discussions, Pages, Syllabus (the content area in Canvas, not the file), Module URLs
• *CATL will do the initial scan; you will need to scan it again. So, we'd recommend prioritizing getting the bulk of the content into a course and requesting CATL scan/fix it. You can then address some additional course development needs, plus the outstanding issues CATL was unable to fix, and then run/fix on another UDOIT scan prior to fall courses starting. 
• The surveys were generated based on course/instructor data in WINGS as of May 8, 2025. If you were assigned as the instructor of a course in WINGS after this date, please submit a form to request a scan.

Help us help you!

• Do you teach multiple sections of the same course? Tell us to scan only one of your courses and opt out of the others.
  • Once we have one scan complete, you'll have one section complete (or with a few additional issues only you can fix due to the document listed above), and then you can copy a completely accessible course to the rest of your sections!

After CATL completes the scan, you will get an email in reply to the survey email with a list indicating the things we did fix, the things we fixed but require your review, and the things we did not fix and you need to address. Once you address these lingering items, you will run a UDOIT scan again before the start of Fall 2025 courses. The email will include directions on how to run the scan; the self-paced training also includes directions. 

As you add and change content in your Fall 2025 course(s), periodically run UDOIT scans to ensure continued inclusion of accessible content. 

Phase 1 is focusing on course content in Canvas. Phase 2 is focusing on documents and videos. The self-paced training includes information about how to design and check for accessibility in various types of documents and videos. As you are creating materials for your Fall 2025, try to design with accessibility in mind and use the checking features as well as what you learned in the training. Starting now will make the requirements for spring 2026 courses that much easier.