Starting next year, a new rule from the U.S. Department of Justice will extend the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to include digital accessibility, putting in place the first federal standards for ensuring web content is accessible to all.
Prior to the DOJ mandate, OSU had already been following federal and state civil rights laws that require effective communication, meaning that materials must be as accessible for disabled people as they are for nondisabled people. But the 2026 rule includes higher standards and encourages public universities and other government entities to be more proactive in ensuring accessibility.
“There’s always been an obligation to provide accessibility, but what accessibility means in a digital space has always been in question. What the DOJ has done is tell us, ‘This is the tool we’ll use to measure accessibility, down to the nitty gritty.’ It’s really helpful, as now we know how they’ll hold us accountable to ensure something is accessible,” said Gabe Merrell, director of access and deputy ADA coordinator in OSU’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.
The new standards go into effect April 2026. The Disability Action steering group working to make OSU compliant includes the Office of Audit, Risk and Compliance; University Information and Technology; Academic Affairs; the Dean of Students and Disability Access Services.
Historically, OSU has built access in a reactive way: An individual student registers with DAS and requests specific accommodations, then DAS works with that student’s instructors to make sure all the course materials are accessible for them.
But this ad hoc process puts an extra burden on disabled students that nondisabled students don’t face in accessing their education, Merrell said.
“Part of the really big conversation every institution’s having right now is about how to do better than we’ve historically done,” he said. “It really is about all the things we espouse as a university: Prosperity Widely Shared; ‘Every student graduates.’ If we’re not including our disabled students in those conversations, we’re missing out on the mission and vision that we say we value as an institution.”
The digital accessibility team recently hosted webinars on digital accessibility for OSU employees who want to learn more, but they’re assessing how to reach the full university community, as everyone who creates digital content at OSU is responsible for ensuring it’s accessible.
While there are some universal rules to digital accessibility, there’s also a lot of nuance requiring discretion by the people creating content, said Sagan Wallace, accessibility manager with OSU Libraries.
“One of my biggest struggles right now is getting people comfortable with it being a little more of an art than a science,” they said. “People want to know how to do it perfectly, but there’s no such thing, unfortunately.”
This also applies to the automated in-app tools like the accessibility alerts in Drupal, Merrell said: They’re helpful but not a panacea, as they can only flag potential issues, not make judgment calls on whether there’s actually a problem.
There is an OSU Digital Accessibility Teams channel where people can ask questions, as there is not one specific office at OSU that has all the answers.
“If you’re not sure about something, ask the organization that’s responsible for whatever you’re doing, so if you’re creating a website, ask the Digital Experience team in IT; for Kaltura, ask Academic Technologies,” Wallace said. “We all know each other so we can help answer questions that come up.”
TIPS & TRICKS
In the recent digital accessibility webinars, presenters highlighted five key areas that will help content creators improve accessibility:
- Headings: Use the “Heading” format button in Microsoft Word, Drupal or whatever platform you’re working in, rather than using font size or bold font to make it look like a heading. This ensures that the document codes that text as a heading, allowing screen readers to identify it as such and jump from heading to heading as needed.
- Lists: Similarly, when making a bulleted or numbered list, use the bullet or number format buttons, rather than manually adding dashes or another symbol, to denote a list. This codes the content as a bulleted list and ensures screen readers will read it as such.
- Colors: Use high-contrast colors when putting text over a background, and do not rely on color alone to convey meaning, as colorblind readers won’t necessarily be able to spot the difference. To ensure high enough contrast between colors, content creators can plug them into this Contrast Checker. Using that tool, OSU must pass at least the WCAG AA standard to be in compliance, but it’s preferable to also pass the WCAG AAA standard. OSU also has a brand color palette accessibility chart to show which brand colors are legible when paired together.
- Links: Use hyperlinks instead of URLs; otherwise, screen readers will read “h-t-t-p-s-colon-slash-slash” etc. Aim to use unique or descriptive text for the hyperlink, like “Visit Equal Opportunity and Access,” instead of nondescript words like “Click here” that don’t offer any indication of where the link leads.
- Alt text: Alt text for photos should be in complete sentences and does not need to say “Image of…” because the first thing the screen reader reads when it comes to an image is “Image is.” All major platforms have alt text, though placement within the platform varies.
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