As a report mentions, 40% of adults with disabilities in the US reported experiencing discrimination because of their disabilities. To tackle such unfair treatment and provide equal opportunity to everyone, The Americans with Disabilities Act was established in 1990. The Act applies to businesses open to the public, commercial facilities, universities, and transport and communication providers.

The Act also requires American universities and educational institutions to provide inclusive and accessible education to all students. However, more than 30 years after the Act was introduced, many American universities still fail to provide the necessary resources and accommodations to ensure equal student education access.

Result?

Universities are facing lawsuits. Take a look at some of the recent court cases.

The National Association of Deaf sued Harvard in a US District Court in 2015 because many of the online resources published by Harvard did not follow the ADA closed captioning rules. And it’s not an isolated incidence.

Florida State University had to pay $75000 each to two blind students who filed a lawsuit against the university for discrimination due to inaccessible technology. If you’re a professor, lecturer, or administrative staff member in any American educational institution who creates and manages video content for courses and wants to stay compliant with the ADA closed captioning rules and ADA mandate in general, this article is for you. This article will guide you on achieving ADA compliance and avoiding hefty fines and penalties through lawsuits.

Understanding ADA Compliance

For example, Title I covers the requirements for employers. Similarly, Title II covers the requirements for public services, including public colleges and universities. The Title III of the Act applies to private universities and colleges.

While the initial legislation focused on physical accessibility to buildings, schools, workplaces, transport, and communication means, as the digital space evolved, accessibility to the digital space became critical, and it was included as an extended part of the ADA.

Thus, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) became the de facto standard.

Universities and educational institutions that upload online resources, video tutorials, webinars, or any other format of resources must follow the standard to remain compliant.

Legal and Ethical Importance

Today, accessibility is a legal requirement. Failing to do so can lead to costly lawsuits. On average, an accessibility lawsuit costs around $25,000. Yet, 98.1% of home pages have at least one WCAG2.0 failure.

Source

Legal implications aside, there’s ethical importance too. As modern living heavily relies on the internet for daily living, inaccessible information on the web discriminates and excludes people with disabilities.

The ADA is not just to be followed to avoid lawsuits but to provide equal and accessible information to all, regardless of their physical ability. So, staying compliant with the ADA will ensure everyone can participate in the digital world and access the same information.

Why ADA Compliance Matters

Universities must legally comply with the ADA, especially Title II and Title III. Failure to comply can lead to lawsuits with financial implications and reputational damage.

Inclusivity and Accessibility

Being an ADA-compliant university means fostering a diverse and inclusive campus environment. This can attract many students, faculty, and visitors and promote equity in education.

Business Benefits

Offering accessible facilities contributes positively to attracting and retaining students with disabilities. Universities prioritizing ADA compliance enhance their reputation as inclusive institutions that value diversity and accessibility. This can positively influence prospective students, faculty, donors, receiving grants, and the broader community.

How You Can Make Your Webpage Resources ADA Compliant

Whether creating a new online course, a video tutorial, or uploading free resources to your website, you must ensure that all the ADA compliance requirements are fulfilled. This means your website must adhere to the following core principles:

  1. The user can easily process and perceive the information on the website
  2. The user can easily understand what’s there on the website
  3. Assistive technologies can interpret all the content
  4. The user can easily navigate the website

ADA Compliance Checklist Free Template

Accessibility Audit Yes/ No
WCAG Yes/ No
Navigation and Layout
Yes/ No
Headings and Labels
Yes/ No
Alt Text for Images Yes/ No
Closed Captions and Transcripts Yes/ No
Accessible PDFs Yes/ No
Test with Assistive Technologies Yes/ No
Provide Training and Resources Yes/ No
Create an Accessibility Policy Yes/ No

Conduct an Accessibility Audit

The first step in ensuring ADA compliance for your website is conducting an accessibility audit. Various tools are available to help you run an accessibility audit. Accessibility Scan and Monitor is one such app that uses AI to check various accessibility parameters set by ADA compliance and WCAG to help you determine if links, texts, videos, images, or form fields are inaccessible.

Image source

AI Accessibility Widget is another helpful tool for running accessibility audits. The tool automatically finds and fixes accessibility violations.

Image Source

Follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The World Wide Web Consortium developed the WCAG guidelines, which explain how to make web content accessible. The guidelines are categorized under four pillars: perceivable, understandable, operable, and robust. Let’s understand what each of these means.

Perceivable: All the information must be presented in a way so that the user can perceive it.

Understandable: The user must be able to understand and operate the interface.

Operable: The user must be able to navigate the interface.

Robust: The user must be able to access the content using assistive technologies.

Click here to download the WCAG guideline checklist.

Implement Accessible Design Practices

While creating the website design, keep accessibility requirements in mind. Here are some recommendations to guide you.

Navigation and Layout

WCAG mentions that navigation and layout should be consistent. For example, low-vision users often use screen magnification visual cues and page boundaries to look for repeated content. So, consistently presenting repeated content is helpful for users who look for visual cues on a webpage.

For example, a search field should be consistently present in the same location on every webpage so that the user knows where the search field is.

Every webpage includes a skip navigation link as the first link. Using the link, the user can bypass heading information and navigational content and reach the main page content.

Headings and Labels

As WCAG describes, headings and labels are not mandatory, but if used, they must help users understand the information on the webpage and how it is organized. Labels and headings need not have long descriptions but should be clear enough to identify the information on a webpage easily.

Here are some examples:

A news site's home page lists headlines for the top news stories of the hour. Each headline describes the news briefly and links to the detailed article.

Similarly, if you’re creating a form to collect user input, label each box clearly. For example, if you want to capture the user's full name in two boxes, label the first box as first name and the second box as second name.

Alt Text for Image

Consider screen readers when including images. Writing meaningful alt text for images can help the user understand the picture and the message you want to convey. If your picture doesn't have an alt text, the screen reader will just read it as the “file name.” Here’s an example of writing meaningful alt text. Remember, the alt text should mention what message the image is conveying.

Poor alt text: Printer Icon

Useful Alt text: Print the exam syllabus

Ensure Media Accessibility

Media accessibility is crucial if you want everyone to be able to access your lectures, seminars, or tutorials. Here are some ways to make your media content accessible.

ADA Closed Captioning Rules and Transcripts

If you’re creating audio-only media like podcasts of lectures, ensure that transcripts and captions are synchronized with the audio. If you’re hosting pre-recorded videos on your website, then the videos should have closed captions, sign language, and a transcript of the audio information. Using platforms like Echo Labs, you can easily adhere to ADA closed captioning rules with 99.8% accuracy.

Accessible PDFs

Make your PDF files accessible. Things you can do:

  1. Add Accessibility Tags

Add accessibility tags to ensure the user can read and navigate the document with screen readers and assistive technologies. If you’re using Microsoft 365 for Windows, Mac, or Office, you can add tags automatically while saving your document in PDF format.

  1. Use an Accessible Source Document

Whether you’re using a Word document, PowerPoint, Google Docs, or InDesign, keep your source document accessible.

  1. Add Fillable Form Fields and Description

If there are fields in the PDF, select All tools > Prepare for accessibility > Automatically tag form fields to detect and make them interactive (fillable). You can use the Form tool to create fillable fields like text boxes, menus, pop-ups, etc.

Source

Also, ensure the PDF document has:

  • List, tables, and paras marked
  • Hierarchy of headings
  • All images have meaningful Alt tags
  • Metadata with title, author, and keywords for better discoverability

Test with Assistive Technologies

When making your website accessible, you need to test it with assistive technologies that most disabled users will likely use while accessing the website.

For example, if you’re testing your website for blind or visually impaired users, you need to test it with a screen reader, an assistive tool that dictates the site’s content with a synthesized voice. These tools not only make the text audible but also help users navigate the website.

For a screen reader test for your website, you need a screen reader test environment to see the site’s output. Remember, screen readers are just one example of assistive technology; there are many others that you need to test, especially when comparing the site on desktop and mobile.

Provide Training and Resources

Your developers must be trained to build accessible websites, while all educators must have access to resources to create accessible content. A great starting point for educators can be ensuring all documents and slides are accessible. Widely used software programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint have in-built accessibility options. You may refer to this toolkit to create accessible documents, presentations, videos, and PDFs.

Create an Accessibility Policy

Your accessibility policy shouldn't just state “fully accessible.” Make sure to specify the standards or technical requirements to which your digital properties will conform. For example, you can say, “All webpages and apps will “comply with the technical requirements of Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.”

You should also mention the process you follow internally to ensure all new pages on the website are regularly monitored for accessibility. Also, define who will monitor if a user reports an accessibility issue, how it will be addressed, and the consequences if accessibility is overlooked.

Non-compliance with any federal law can call for legal consequences. The same holds for non-compliance with the ADA Act. Students can sue universities for non-compliance, leading to financial penalties and lawsuits.

Here are some court cases and learnings from ADA non-compliance by universities.

In 2012, SuShawn Seller, a nursing student, sued the University of Rio Grande for violating the ADA and Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973. She claimed that the university had not done enough to accommodate her disability, which resulted in her failing her final exam by three points.

After review, the court rendered a verdict in her favor, and she was allowed to complete her course under a temporary restraining order.

In another case, the National Association of the Deaf sued the University of California, stating that many of the University of California (U.C.) Berkeley's course materials are inaccessible to students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. The court agreed to the violations and asked the university to address the concerns.

Not complying with the ADA can significantly damage the university's reputation and negatively impact its ability to receive federal funding, as well as result in financial penalties and lawsuits.

Challenges and Solutions in Achieving ADA Compliance

While maintaining ADA compliance is a non-negotiable for universities, universities face certain challenges.

Challenge #1: Staying Up-to-date

Many universities find it challenging to stay up-to-date with all the ADA standards and regularly monitor them to ensure that all the updates in their portal are ADA-compliant.

To mitigate this challenge, universities need dedicated legal resources who can monitor the changes. There must be a system accountable for noting any violations and addressing them promptly.  This will help save the university's reputation and prevent lawsuits and penalties.

Challenge #2: Budget Limitations

Budget limitations are another challenge for universities. For example, to create closed captioning for all educational resources, you must purchase accessible technology.

This challenge can be mitigated by investing in cost-effective solutions like Echo Labs. It starts at $0.70 per minute, making it three times more affordable than traditional methods. Plus, it has a fast turnaround. The tool guarantees processing up to 5000 hours of content per week with a turnaround time of 24 hours, ensuring timely delivery of captions.

It is not desirable to get into legal issues for non-compliance, and you can easily bypass them by staying compliant. For example, by adopting Echo Labs' solutions, educational institutions have saved $3,589,329 by adhering to closed captioning rules.

What more?

Echo Labs is the first to achieve 99.8% accuracy in real-world environments for ADA closed captioning rules.

Are you ready to get started? Explore the tool free for the first five hours. If you like what you see, get started with Echo Labs for as low as $0.70 per minute.