Accessibility Starts Now: How Schools Can Prepare for Digital Accessibility Requirements

Why Accessibility Matters Now 

In April 2024, the Department of Justice released an update to the Title II section of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), making specific requirements for state and local agencies (including educational ones) to ensure accessibility across all digital platforms. This update included making word documents, presentation slides, apps, websites, and PDFs compliant with standards from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). For many districts, this was a daunting task, especially for teams that are already stretched thin. Originally, the deadline to have relevant documents made accessible was April of this year but has recently been extended to April 26, 2027. Larger districts deadlines were extended from April 2027 to April 2028.  

While the extension is a sigh of relief for many teams in school districts, the reality is that the disabled community is still waiting on materials to be made accessible. Deaf or hard-of-hearing students cannot understand what is happening in classroom videos. Families with English learners are unable to translate newsletters. A community member is unable to access information on their phone. These are just a few examples of real-life situations that demand digital accessibility.  

So, in light of this DOJ update and the deadline extension, let’s dive into what accessibility compliance means and how schools can start or continue their transition to compliant digital accessibility. The sooner you and your team can start implementing these strategies throughout your content creation, the sooner those with disabilities and beyond can get the information they need. 

Understanding What “Accessibility” Means in Schools 

Someone may hear the word “accessibility” and think about curb cuts, ramps, and large silver buttons that open doors automatically. However, that’s only one part of what accessibility means. Accessibility also includes digital information that can be used by everyone, including people who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, video captions, or keyboard navigation.  

Here’s what platforms and materials need to be made accessible in your district: 

• Websites and school portals  

• PDFs and documents shared with families, including board documents 

• Videos used in instruction  

• Classroom learning materials  

• School newsletters and social media  

• Online learning platforms and digital assignments 

Now, this may seem daunting. That’s a lot of materials to make accessible! It’s important to remember that each piece of inaccessible material can result in a student unable to make connections, a parent unable to understand, an educator unable to do their job, and more. It also helps to remember that once these accessibility habits are established within your content creation workflows, making your content compliant will become easier and almost second nature.  

On the bright side, not everything needs to be made accessible. There is an exception under the new ruling for archived materials that are no longer in use.  For example, if a PDF flyer from 2022 is buried on your website and the dates on it are no longer relevant or expired, then that document doesn’t need to be fixed. (You may want to consider taking it off your website though). However, if a PDF registration form that was made in 2022 is still being used on your website by parents or students, then that form needs to be made accessible. 

Accessible Communication with Families 

Your widest audience is going to be the families and communities surrounding your district, so this is the perfect place to focus on accessibility. The beauty of creating with accessibility as the baseline is that your communications can benefit so many more people alongside it. With this in mind, there are a few tips you can start including in your workflows to create accessible materials when sharing with the community. 

Key tips schools can implement now: 

• Use clear headings and structured documents  

• A structured document can help lots of people! A flyer or webpage with clear headings and subheadings, short and concise paragraphs, paired with images or videos (with alt text and/or captions) can benefit anyone, with or without a disability.  

• Avoid image-only flyers  

• Screen readers can’t “read” images. Avoid designing your digital materials with images. Pictures are still encouraged, but only for decorative purposes. No matter what kind of image you include in a document, make sure you add alt text! 

• Add alt text to images  

• Alt text is short for “alternative text”. Alt text acts as a substitute for an image. It describes what is in the photo for those using a screen reader or even if the image fails to load, a description shows in its place to let the user know what they are missing. 

• Ensure videos include captions  

• Just made a video and ready to upload it for the rest of the world to see? A great way to ensure that anyone viewing the video can understand what the message is by uploading captions and transcripts. Captions are the words that pop up at the bottom of a video while the person is talking. A transcript is the text document of everything that is said in the video. On YouTube, the transcript can appear next to the video so as not to obstruct the view of the video. A video is not complete without these two elements! Thankfully, there are some great websites out there that will write accurate captions and transcripts for you in less than 24 hours.  

• Avoid relying solely on color to communicate information  

• For example: instead of using color bars in a pie chart, give each piece of the chart a different pattern to show separation to those that are color blind. Adding labels to your graphs can also help differentiate the different sections. This is a great practice in both classroom worksheets and when producing an annual report to distribute to district families. 

• Use plain language when possible 

• Many accessibility organizations recommend using the vocabulary and language levels of an eighth grader to make sure that what you are saying is easily understood. Avoid jargon when possible, as well! This is especially important when sending out emergency notifications to the school community. 

Accessibility in the Classroom 

A teacher doesn’t have to teach in a special education classroom specifically to apply digital accessibility to their daily instruction. If you can make your classroom accessible, it can help more students in more ways than you might think. Check out some of the tips below and how they can help.  

Tips for teachers: 

• Use captioned videos 

• Watching a movie in class or showing a YouTube video? Turn on those captions!  

• Ensure slides have readable fonts and high contrast in colors 

• Fancy fonts are fun and pretty to look at, but often can confuse students with dyslexia or low vision.  

• Structure documents with headings and lists  

• Documents are easier to read when broken into sections and into bulleted or numbered lists. This is especially helpful for students with ADHD and those that use screen readers.  

• Provide multiple ways for students to access content  

• Provide worksheets, videos, voice recordings, interactive activities, etc. to meet students where they are on their learning journey. Making lessons accessible can improve learning for a student with visual or hearing impairments or learning differences. 

• Check accessibility Microsoft Word/PowerPoint  

• These programs have built-in accessibility checkers that can help you make accessible digital materials, for no additional cost! It takes minutes to fix any errors and is very user-friendly! Making digital documents can especially help students using screen readers and other assistive technology. Unfortunately, Google products do not have built-in checkers, but browser extensions can help.  

Common Accessibility Mistakes Schools Make 

Just as there are ways to improve the accessibility of digital materials, there are ways that actively prevent a document from being used. Here are some “do-nots” when it comes to accessibility.  

• Posting scanned PDFs that cannot be read by screen readers  

• Unless a PDF is designed digitally from the start, it is unlikely to be read by screen readers and assistive tech, especially scanned ones.  

• Sharing flyers that contain only images  

• When making a flyer, make sure to save your file as a PDF instead of a JPEG or PNG. Screen readers are more likely to read a PDF with layers of text, images, and links instead of a flat image.  

• Using color combinations with low contrast  

• When designing your materials, make sure to use dak text on light backgrounds and light text on dark backgrounds. Try not to use text over a busy background either. Often, text overtop a busy photograph or light colors on light backgrounds can cause eye strain for anyone trying to read the document. It can also prove difficult to read for people who are colorblind or have low vision. 

• Uploading videos without captions  

• Have you ever watched a video with no sound? Do you have any idea what is happening? This is a great example of where accessible practices can benefit anyone. Uploading videos without captions can cause your audience to scroll past or just tune out entirely.  

• Creating documents without structure  

• Screen readers often read from top to bottom and left to right, but if a document structure breaks those rules, a screen reader might jumble up the different sections and hop around while reading a document. Stick with linear and logical layout for your material design. 

Getting Your District Ready 

Is your school or district ready to take the leap to full accessibility compliance? Great! Seeing the necessity in accessibility is the very first step in compliance. To make sure that compliance is met, accessibility needs to be blended into your organization’s workflows at all levels. Thankfully, we have some steps to help get you started. 

Suggested Steps: 

1. Conduct a digital accessibility audit  

• The Web Accessibility Initiative has evaluation tools that can be used to evaluate if your materials and websites meet accessibility standards.  

2. Identify commonly used platforms and materials 

• Where are they?  Are they still relevant or in use? What programs can help make materials accessible? Use these questions to guide you in deciding what materials may need remediation. 

3. Provide training for staff  

• It is recommended that staff are highly encouraged or required to participate in some form of training. OCALI’s Assistive Technology and Accessible Educational Materials Center has on-demand and live trainings available to give yourself or your staff a starting point. 

4. Create accessible templates  

• Once you’re comfortable with making accessible documents, make templates that your staff can share and edit to suit their needs. This will ensure that future documents are made accessible as well (and encourage staff to use accessibility checkers to make sure). 

5. Build accessibility into communication workflows  

• We’ve talked a lot about instructional documents, but accessibility and the DOJ ruling also includes social media and marketing materials! Build logical layouts in your flyers at the start, add alt text as you add photos, make transcripts and captions before you upload that marketing video. Don’t remediate your materials after the fact. That is time-consuming and costly. If you design around accessibility at the start, the process becomes much smoother as you learn. 

6. Designate a point person or accessibility team  

• While accessibility compliance needs to be everyone’s responsibility, having a point person or team to hold other staff members accountable, on track, and able to make decisions to achieve compliance.  

Through these steps, accessibility will remain embedded in your organization’s workflows and not an afterthought.  

How the ESC of Central Ohio Can Help 

The ESC is currently launching its first steering committee to ensure that all the organization’s communications and documents are accessible to the public and to our staff. This committee will train staff to make accessible the materials used in classrooms and in the office, produce templates and guidance for staff to create their own materials, and regularly perform audits to ensure each department is maintaining compliance with federal and state law. 

If your school, district, or organization is looking for guidance and training on making digital materials accessible, please head to ataem.org, provided by OCALI. This website has great resources on how you can create accessible digital materials with webinars, templates, and more! 

Accessibility Is About Access 

The standard for accessibility isn’t just about ramps and blue parking spots anymore. Digital accessibility has taken the forefront of the conversation with these laws coming into place. While the deadlines to reach compliance come into effect in 2027 and 2028, getting your communications and materials in line now will save you time, money, and plenty of stress in the future. Your students, staff, and community need accessible materials now. Taking these steps now ensures that you’ll be able to ensure learning and communication is accessible to everyone! 

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Eileen Asher-Jones is a graduate of the Graphic Design program at Ohio Dominican University with a specialization in branding and identity. She is a member of the ESC Communications team where she works towards developing more inclusive design and marketing practices and has earned a certification as a Certified Professional of Accessibility Core Competencies. She currently serves on the board of The Center for Disability Empowerment.   

Email Eileen at Eileen.Asher@escco.org for more information about accessible design and communication practices. View the ESC’s accessibility statement here.