The “Help” tab for students in Carmen Canvas, headed by an “Accessibility Information” link. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
Ohio State must adapt Carmen Canvas, university-run website and social media to meet updated digital accessibility requirements by the end of April.
In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released new ADA Title II regulations, requiring public entities such as federally-funded universities to provide easier digital access on web pages, apps and social media profiles for students with visual impairments and other disabilities. On April 24, these regulations will be fully enforced, according to the ADA Digital Accessibility Center website.?
Vanessa Coterel is the director of the Digital Accessibility Center and the Deputy ADA Coordinator for Ohio State. She has been working to ensure Ohio State meets the April 24 deadline.
“We need to make sure that anything we’re providing digitally is accessible,” Coterel said. “If a video is shown in a course, it should have captioning. Those captions should not only exist, but they should be accurate and meaningfully convey what’s in the video.”?
Scott Lissner said some content, such as advanced simulations, can not be fully accessible. He is the ADA coordinator and 504 compliance officer for Ohio State.?
“That software is never going to meet 100 percent of the technical standards for accessibility,” Lissner said. “We need a process that says ‘We’ve looked. This is the best available product from an accessibility point of view that meets the academic needs.’”
Digital accessibility reaches beyond captions and descriptions of pictures for screen readers, Coterel said there is a program that reads on-screen text out loud for students with low-vision or dyslexia.?
“If you’re a mouse user, you tend to think about accessing things on the screen with a mouse, but not everyone can use a mouse and so things should be accessible through the keyboard,” Coterel said.?
Coterel and Lissner emphasized the importance of being proactively accessible.?
“The regulations require that we put those [accessibility features] in as we post [online content],” Lissner said. “It doesn’t rely on an individual who can’t manipulate a mouse because they’re quadriplegic to have to request that we redesign the program so they can use voice input.”?
Going through every digital piece of material in a course to ensure that it is accessible will be a difficult process, Lissner said.?
“Let’s make sure your new documents, first, are accessible,” Lissner said. “Then, let’s be thoughtful about it. Some sort of plan to go back and remediate.”
Coterel said Ohio State has a great amount of digital content, even outside of coursework.?
“I mean, so much of what we do is digital, right?” Coterel said. “How you got into Ohio State, I bet you did digitally. How you applied for admission, how you registered for classes, how you applied for financial aid.”
To help prepare instructors for the accessibility requirements, Ohio State integrated a software called Ally that can scan digital material and provide a percentage report of how accessible it is. It can automatically fix some minor problems and will mark the ones it can not correct.?
“It also helps explain what those barriers are and how to fix them,” Coterel said.?
However, there are limits to what Ally can do, she said.??
“It’s not going to be able to tell you if all the captions in a video are accurate,” Coterel said. “Someone will be going through a video and making sure that the captions that were auto-generated are actually conveying the right information.”
While digital content offered by Ohio State is required to be accessible, materials offered through university-partnered programs are not, Lissner said.?
“The law requires [Ohio State] to present material accessibly. The law does not require that Workday or Prentice Hall or Zoom produce accessible software,” Lissner said. “They’re catching up right now because if we won’t buy it, if it’s not accessible — we’ve got a big pocketbook, right? We’re a big customer.”
Ohio State offers a Web Accessibility Certified tester program through the ADA Digital Accessibility Center website. Any staff, student or faculty can complete the training to receive a certification, but there are usually designated digital accessibility testers within each office of the university, Coterel said.?
“We’re such a large university and [digital accessibility] has to happen across the university all of the time,” Coterel said. “A particular unit needs a tester so they’ll tap one of their employees.”
