U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) New Accessibility Standards
Overview of the Ruling:
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has established new accessibility standards for digital content in educational institutions to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). New ruling covers websites and social media sites used by the college or by faculty in their courses.
WCAG 2.1, level AA are a set of standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that ensure digital content is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
Purpose of the Ruling:
Ensure that all students, including those with disabilities, have equitable access to educational materials and technology. Eliminate barriers to learning by providing accessible course content, tools, and platforms.
Institutional Responsibility:
As an institution, we are responsible for ensuring that all digital content, including course materials, documents, videos, software, websites, and social media meets these accessibility standards by April 2026
The WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool is designed to help you identify and address accessibility issues on web pages. Developed by WebAIM.org (Opens in a new window), WAVE provides visual feedback on accessibility features and barriers, ensuring compliance with WCAG guidelines. Whether you’re reviewing your own content or checking the accessibility of third-party resources, WAVE’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to enhance usability, promote inclusivity, and create accessible digital content for all users.
To use the WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool, simply copy the URL of your web page and paste it into the WAVE checker at WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. Click “Enter” or the “Arrow” button, and WAVE will analyze your page, providing a visual report of accessibility strengths and areas for improvement.
We offer accessibility training in Momentum. This document was created to assist you in accessing the ADA Compliance Training Modules. Additionally, this handout provides an overview of each module. Accessing ADA Modules in D2L Momentum (PDF)
RSCC Accessible Syllabus Template
This template is a Word document that has been formatted to meet ADA requirements and was adopted by the faculty senate (Revised 2023). ADA_Compliant_Syllabus_Template
This section will provide you with information on how to pre-set headings and list styles, provides text descriptions for images and graphs, and uses simple data tables and meaningful links.
A screen reader will announce the presence of lists that are formatted through Word’s Bullet or Number list tools. Group items as a numbered list if items should be in a sequential order, or a bulleted list should be used if the items are only related.
A screen reader will announce the presence of lists that are formatted through Word’s Bullet or Number list tools. Group items as a numbered list if items should be in a sequential order, or a bulleted list should be used if the items are only related.
Add meaningful links- Screen readers announce the presence of hyperlinks on a Word document . Hyperlinks need to be formatted and described so that they will not only be clear to a screen reader, but to end users who will need to know where they will be directed after they select the link.
Add meaningful links- Screen readers announce the presence of hyperlinks on a Word document . Hyperlinks need to be formatted and described so that they will not only be clear to a screen reader, but to end users who will need to know where they will be directed after they select the link.
Screen readers will read Alt text for images to describe what the image is being shown in a document. It is important that images which are unrelated to the course content be marked as decorative.
Screen readers will read Alt text for images to describe what the image is being shown in a document. It is important that images which are unrelated to the course content be marked as decorative.
The following will assist in helping the creation of course organization, design, course delivery, and Academic Integrity in Online Courses. Please visit our Online Peer Review (opens in a new window) page for multiple styles of Rubrics offered as a PDF, Excel spread sheet, and as an HTML webpage.
The following Course Accessibility Checklist (PDF) will assist in checking to see if your course material is ADA compliant with regards to template, headings, images, lists, links, tables and much more.
This handout will assist in converting accessible HTML files into a Word Document. This process will be necessary for Department Secretaries to check syllabi for accessibility.
Accessibility in education is important because all students deserve to have equal access to all course materials. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability. In relation to online education, we must specifically comply with Sections 504 and 508. For more information, WebAIM has a lot of information on what Section 504 and Section 508 (opens in a new window) states, as well as practical guidelines on how to comply. The inclusion of video content in courses is becoming commonplace, so it is germane to provide closed captions to accommodate the needs of all students.
If you can find video content that you want to use in your class but you do not own the content, there is still a way to add captions. Check out this nifty service called Amara (opens in a new window).
The Roane State Library is packed full of useful databases, including rich media that is already closed captioned. Contact your RSCC Librarians, who will be happy to assist you in finding the right content for your course
This video demonstrates how easy it is to download YouTube subtitles as transcripts with or without timestamps. This will allow faculty to post a transcript below videos used in their courses
NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and visually impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerized voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.
This section will provide you with an overview of things to consider in designing your online courses. In the following videos, Dr. Susan Sutton discusses Universal Design for Learning as well as things to consider with eTextbooks. She also discusses captions, transcripts, and “alt text” when designing your online course and gives examples of accessible documents that can be read by Screen Readers.
