ADA/508 Compliance in Online Education at XYZ University

ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disability. “Prohibition of discrimination. No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation…”  (U.S. Department of Justice, § 36.201 General.)  Title II of ADA covers public colleges and universities, while Title III applies to private colleges and universities.

One provision of ADA is the “effective communication rule” requiring any institution covered by ADA to ensure communication with people with disabilities “is equally effective as communication with people without disabilities.” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014). This rule refers to all communications, which can be interpreted as guaranteeing students have equal access to educational materials, opportunities, and services, including those found in online and blended courses in higher education.

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I say “interpreted”, because currently there are no specific regulations found in the ADA about what constitutes accessible websites, online content, or other types of information technology and communication, in terms of complying with Titles II and III (Burke, 2016, p. 141). The U.S. Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division issued a Supplemental Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking called Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities in 2016 with the purpose of soliciting public feedback about its rules on web accessibility.

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For specific standards and requirements impacting online learning, accessibility advocates turn to Section 508 for guidance. (McLawhorn, 2001, p. 77).

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Section 508

“Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies to make electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government accessible to people with disabilities” (Burke, 2016, p. 155). What does this mean for higher education?  

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While XYZ University isn’t a federal agency, Missouri receives funds from the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, and as such, must comply with Section 508 standards. Additionally, Missouri state law requires public four-year and two-year universities to meet Section 508 standards, meaning they must “develop and procure accessible information technology” (Missouri Assistive Technology). Technologies and learning materials used in online and blended courses must be accessible and usable by students with disabilities, comparable to the access and use by students without disabilities.

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Section 508 standards recently underwent an update and “refresh”, announced in January 2017. The updated standards focus on functionality instead of product type, and are broken into categories: access to functionality; functional performance criteria; electronic content; hardware; software; and support documentation and services. Examples of functional performance criteria include:

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• 302.1 Without Vision. Where a visual mode of operation is provided, ICT shall provide at least one mode of operation that does not require user vision.

• 302.6 Without Speech. Where speech is used for input, control, or operation, ICT shall provide at least one mode of operation that does not require user speech.

• 410.1 General. Where provided, color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.

• 503.2 User Preferences. Applications shall permit user preferences from platform settings for color, contrast, font type, font size, and focus cursor. (United States Access Board, 2017).

Another major change to the standards as part of the refresh was the incorporation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and their Success Criteria for Conformance Requirements.  (United States Access Board, 2017).)

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Compliance with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) refresh of Section 508 standards is required beginning January 18, 2018.

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WCAG 2.0

WCAG 2.0, or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, were developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a way to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. These best practice standards are organized around four principles of web content accessibility: perceivable; operable; understandable; and robust. W3C defines the principles this way:

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1. Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.

   • This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented (it can't be invisible to all of their senses)

2. Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable.

   • This means that users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform)

3. Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.

   • This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding)

4. Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

   • This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible)(2016).

Under the four principles are twelve guidelines and related success criteria which are testable and provide a standard for whether a site or other web content complies with the guidelines.

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There are three levels of success criteria conformance: Level A (minimum level of conformance), Level AA, and Level AAA (highest level of conformance). A quick reference to the Guidelines, requirements (success criteria and their levels) and techniques for meeting them is provided to help people apply the WCAG 2.0.

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As mentioned earlier, the updated Section 508 standards are now aligned with WCAG 2.0 Level A and Level AA success criteria and conformance requirements.