Ten things to know from this week's digital accessibility update

By Jeff Budlong
October 24, 2024

Cyndi Wiley, digital accessibility lead for Information Technology Services (ITS), emphasized compliance and the deadline of April 24, 2026, during a Oct. 21 webinar updating Iowa State's digital accessibility efforts.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice updated regulations in the Americans with Disabilities Act that ensure people with disabilities can successfully navigate entities' web content and mobile apps. As a public university, Iowa State must comply by the 2026 deadline.

"This promotes inclusivity, compliance and wider reach by ensuring everyone can participate," Wiley said.

For those who could not attend, the archived webinar will be added to the "Digital Accessibility at ISU" group in Microsoft Teams soon.

Iowa State's digital accessibility toolkit has numerous tailored resources to begin updating or continue the effort. It includes knowledge base articles, LinkedIn Learning paths, free tools to check accessibility, captioning and transcription services and more. Wiley said her team will continue to update the toolkit.

Here are 10 takeaways from the webinar:

  1. The updated regulations require accessibility for web content and mobile apps, including:
    • Educational content (course materials in Canvas)
    • Software and applications
    • Social media content
    • Mobile apps (internal and external)
    • Digital documents (PDFs, Microsoft Word files)
    • Digital publications (e-books, journal articles)
    • Digital communications (emails, newsletters)
    • Multimedia (images, videos)

  2. All websites related to the university must be accessible. It includes all ".iastate.edu" domains and subdomains as well as faculty research, student organization and affiliate sites (athletics, ISU Book Store and ISU Extension and Outreach, etc.). All university websites should comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA as defined by the Web Accessibility Initiative group.

  3. Siteimprove, a software tool found on the toolkit website, ensures accessibility and compliance for public-facing and internal websites.

  4. All digital course materials must be accessible. This includes Canvas courses and digital books, textbooks, audio, video and documents. Anthology Ally, also found on the toolkit website, is software that works in Canvas to automatically check course content and files for accessibility issues and delivers guidance to instructors to improve them.
  5. All social media posts must incorporate available accessibility features of each platform (Facebook, X, Instagram, etc.). Older posts do not have to be updated, unless requested.
  6. The digital accessibility team will begin a series of monthly webinars on specific accessibility topics this month. A digital accessibility work group also will be formed with liaisons from departments across campus to share information and updates.
  7. Starting in spring 2025, required training for faculty and staff will be available through Workday Learning.
  8. On April 24, 2026, Iowa State must have processes in place to respond to any digital accessibility inquiries or complaints. Web content or apps that aren't compliant may not be used or purchased.
  9. The ITS web development and digital accessibility units offer fee-for-service help for digital accessibility compliance projects. Contact them to learn more.
  10. Specific questions can be emailed to digitalaccess@iastate.edu. Any ISU employee may join the "Digital Accessibility at ISU" group in Microsoft Teams.

Related articles: