In April of 2024, the Department of Justice released a final rule with updated regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This ruling provides new digital accessibility requirements for public institutions, including public higher education institutions, such as Rutgers University-Camden.
What does this mean for me as a faculty member?
These updated regulations mean that all digital content (such as materials shared on Canvas) must adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Click here to view an ‘at-a-glance’ summary of the WCAG 2.1 guidelines.
What can I do to prepare to meet these guidelines?
More specific training and resources will be coming soon, but you may wish to start considering the following to prepare to meet these guidelines. This list is not comprehensive but is a good place to start when considering course accessibility.
- Are there text alternatives for non-text content in my course sites? (e.g., video captions, meaningful captions, alt-tags for photos or diagrams, etc.)
- Is the information in my course (e.g., documents, and course structure) presented in a hierarchical and meaningful structure that is easy to navigate?
Resources
- The university-wide Office of Digital Accessibility offers essential documentation and training
- Accessibility tips from IDT
- Learn more about Ally, a Canvas tool that evaluates the accessibility of course content
IDT will be providing updates as we help our campus work toward compliance with these new guidelines. Please reach out to idt@camden.rutgers.edu with any questions!