Digital Accessibility FAQs

All digital content, including course materials, must be accessible starting with May 2026 term moving forward. Departments should first prioritize reviewing their most visible or frequently accessed content-such as websites, student resources, course content, and educational materials. Internal documents and systems should follow. It is essential to regularly review and update any content and ensure that all new content is created to be accessible from the start.

Course content prior to April 2026 does not need to be updated/fully accessible if it is no longer being used.  If course content from an older course is being used after April 2026, it needs to be updated and made accessible.

Yes, if a meeting is recorded and shared, it must be captioned to ensure accessibility and comply with legal requirements. 

Yes, if the meeting recording is shared alongside the minutes, it must also be in accessible form (e.g. with captions or transcript) to ensure equal access. 

According to W3C, captions are similar to dialogue-only subtitles except captions convey not only the content of spoken dialogue, but also equivalents for non-dialogue audio information needed to understand the program content, including sound effects, music, laughter, speaker identification and location; however, automatically-generated captions do not meet user needs or accessibility requirements, unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate.

Consider why a PDF is being used and whether a different format serves the purpose and is easier to make accessible.  Would it be better served as a web page or a Word document?

Everyone at UNI is responsible for ensuring digital accessibility. Whether you’re a faculty, staff, administration, student leader, or an external partner, you must ensure that your web content and mobile apps comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA.

You can use accessibility checkers in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe; caption videos and provide transcripts; structure content with proper headings and alt text; use accessible templates for course syllabi and presentations; and use the university's accessibility team for support. For course content, you can also use Blackboard's Ally to check the accessibility of all of these files. https://help.blackboard.com/Ally/Ally_for_LMS/Instructor/Accessibility_Scores

Open Educational Resources (OER) is available through Rod Library.  Library Services can assist with finding, creating, and adapting OER.  These are free teaching/learning resources that also include permissions for adapting content, including updating accessibility for all users.

It is the right thing to do. Following digital accessibility guidelines ensure that the campus community and public can access University content online. It is also a legal obligation. The expectation that online content is accessible is not a new idea, the University has an obligation to make its programs, course content, events, etc., available which includes online content.

Accessible content is designed so people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with it. Examples include alt text for images, color contrast for readability, captions and transcripts for videos, and heads/ labels for screen reader navigation.

Digital content includes, but is not limited to, webpages on the uni.edu domain, files shared in Blackboard Ultra, recorded lectures, UNI mobile apps and portals, emails, newsletters, flyers, and social media content created by official university accounts.

Accessible content removes barriers and allows students with disabilities to participate fully in academic and campus life.

Social media posts posted before April 2026 do not need to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA. Making all past social media posts accessible may be impossible. There also may be very little use to making these old posts accessible because they were usually intended to provide updates about things happening at the time they were posted in the past.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Iowa Board of Regents accessibility policies, UNI Policy 13.15, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA

Everyone at UNI is responsible for ensuring digital accessibility. Whether you’re a faculty, staff, administration, student leader, or an external partner, you must ensure that your web content and mobile apps comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA.

Yes, emails should follow the accessibility guidelines. Make sure that they include alt text for images, color contrast, and meaningful link text.

The new regulations define “web content” as the information and experience communicated to the user by means of a user agent, including code or markup that defines the contents’ structure, presentation, and interactions. Examples of web content include text, image, sounds, videos, controls, animations, and conventional electronic documents.