University & College Accessibility Compliance
Colleges and universities face ADA Title II, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and growing OCR pressure. Student portals, LMS platforms, course materials, and campus websites all must meet WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Top 0
- sectors targeted by OCR accessibility complaints
- 0%
- of university websites have critical WCAG failures
- 1 in 4
- college students has a documented disability
- $3.5M+
- in OCR settlement fines (2019–2024)
Laws & Regulations That Apply to Higher Education
Understanding which rules apply to your organization is the first step. Here's what governs higher education accessibility compliance.
ADA Title II & III
Public universities are covered by Title II; private colleges by Title III. Both require that digital services be equally accessible to students, faculty, and visitors with disabilities.
Section 504 (Rehab Act)
Any institution receiving federal financial assistance — virtually all accredited U.S. colleges — must provide equal access to programs, including online platforms and course materials.
Section 508
Universities that contract with or receive grants from the federal government must ensure procured IT products and systems meet Section 508 standards.
OCR Resolution Agreements
The DOE Office for Civil Rights frequently investigates university accessibility complaints and imposes binding resolution agreements requiring full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across all digital properties.
Common Accessibility Challenges in Higher Education
These are the specific failure patterns we encounter most often — and fix — when auditing higher education organizations.
LMS Accessibility (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle)
Learning Management Systems and the course content loaded into them must be accessible. Uploaded PDFs, videos without captions, and inaccessible assignments create daily barriers for disabled students.
Student Portal & Registration Systems
Course registration, financial aid portals, and student records systems are often built on legacy platforms with deep accessibility debt — and are the most common sources of OCR complaints.
Research & Academic Publications
Faculty-authored PDFs, research reports, and institutional publications must be accessible — especially when published on .edu sites or distributed to students and the public.
Video Captioning at Scale
Lecture recordings, virtual events, and educational videos require human-reviewed captions at 99%+ accuracy. Auto-generated captions (YouTube, Zoom) do not meet the legal standard.
Services for Higher Education Organizations
We tailor our approach to the specific regulations and technical challenges your higher education organization faces.
WCAG Audit
Comprehensive WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA audit of your website, app, or digital product. Get a prioritized remediation roadmap.
Learn moreADA / 508
Navigate ADA Title III and Section 508 compliance with confidence. We translate legal requirements into technical action plans.
Learn moreTraining
Upskill your design and engineering teams with hands-on accessibility training tailored to your tech stack and workflow.
Learn moreDocuments
Make your PDFs, Word docs, PowerPoints, and spreadsheets accessible and Section 508 / PDF/UA compliant.
Learn more
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is our university required to make online course materials accessible?
- Yes. Under Section 504 and ADA Title II/III, all course materials — including PDFs, videos, and third-party tools used in instruction — must be accessible to students with disabilities. The DOE OCR enforces this through complaint investigations and binding resolution agreements.
- What is an OCR resolution agreement and what does it require?
- If the DOE Office for Civil Rights investigates your institution for an accessibility complaint, they typically require a binding resolution agreement mandating WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across all digital properties within a set timeframe, plus ongoing accessibility policies and regular audits. BuildWithAccess has helped universities fulfill OCR agreement requirements.
- Our LMS is Canvas or Blackboard — is it already accessible?
- The LMS platform itself may have reasonable baseline accessibility, but the content faculty upload — PDFs, presentations, custom HTML pages, embedded media — is usually not. The platform cannot make inaccessible content accessible. We audit both the platform and representative course content.
- Do we need to caption all our lecture videos?
- Yes, under Section 504 and the ADA. Auto-generated captions have 20–30% error rates and do not meet legal standards. You need human-reviewed captions at 99%+ accuracy. We help you establish a captioning workflow and prioritize your existing video library for remediation.
Ready to make your Higher Ed website accessible?
Get a free consultation with a certified accessibility specialist who understands higher educationregulations. We'll assess your current compliance level and give you a clear path forward.