Post-secondary education plays an important role in preparing students for the workplace, retraining workers who lost their jobs due to business closures, or perhaps sustained injuries or illnesses that result in disabilities and requires retraining for different jobs. Many of these students rely on college websites for information, and enroll in courses that are offered online. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a substantial increase of university and college websites and in web-based learning that use Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard and Moodle. Access to web-based information can be very beneficial to students and post-secondary staff and faculty with and without disabilities. However, a lack of accessibility to websites and courses in Learning Management Systems is something that is being monitored by outside individuals and/or organizations and violations are reported to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR’s regional office serving Montana and Alaska is in Seattle Washington. This blog will provide a brief overview of my personal experience with an OCR complaint while employed as a college administrator, touch on lessons that I learned from this experience, and discuss how important it is for campus administrators to ensure not only their websites are accessible, but also their web-based courses.
It is a disturbing experience when a senior campus administrator receives an OCR complaint letter. In 2017, when I was serving as Campus Director for Kodiak College, a community campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage, I received an OCR complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of disability when our college website was found to be inaccessible. The complaint alleged, in part, that Kodiak’s website was not in compliance with Section 504 and Title II because they were inaccessible to individuals with vision and print disabilities and physical impairments.[1] Two other UAA campuses also received OCR complaints when I did.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Section 504 is a federal law that states: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . .”[2]
This also means “a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability, in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.”[3] Kodiak’s website allegedly had several inaccessible web pages including Financial Aid, Academic Advising, Academic Departments, Campus Resources and Hours, Learning Center, Introduction to eLearning, and the Library.[4]
In response to the complaint, OCR conducted a preliminary examination of the web pages identified by the Complainant and found inter alia compliance concerns as to whether Kodiak’s on-line programs, services, and activities were accessible to individuals with disabilities. For example, OCR found accessibility issues on Kodiak’s home page: keyboard controls did not provide access to all content and functions, that main page menus were inaccessible to keyboard only users and that not all content related to pictures was displayed and was not accessible to key-board only users. Before the OCR completed its investigation, Kodiak and the other two campuses resolved the complaint pursuant to Section 302 of OCR’s Case Processing Manual.[v] (See also Resolution Agreement).[vi] This agreement set-forth what the campuses needed to do to be in compliance with Section 504 and Title II.
It is critical that executives and senior administrators keep accessible web pages and online programs and services in the forefront of their mind. They must scan for issues that may give rise to a grievance or lawsuit and be proactive about addressing accessibility issues when they arise. Moreover, they must instill the importance of accessibility in the minds of faculty and staff. Too often faculty and staff do not truly understand the concept of accessibility, and do not know how to create accessible websites or course content. The following are a few lessons I learned from the OCR complaint experience.
- Web accessibility is not only about websites or web-pages, it is also about on-line course-content placed in Learning Management Systems.
- Be very vigilant that .pdfs and other documents on websites are accessible, and videos have closed captions and transcripts, this also applies to all online course content. This is an absolute must to ensure equal access for students with disabilities.
- Ensure the campus has the financial resources to properly train faculty and staff who are involved with working on websites and online course content.
- Provide training for all faculty and staff who are working with websites and course content that follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).[vii]
- Employ an IT professional who is well-trained in WCAG Compliance and monitoring all websites and course content for accessibility: Faculty should not argue this is an administrative violation of their academic freedom as ensuring course content is accessible is the law.
In conclusion, there are a number of excellent resources available to college administrators that will help them ensure their websites and online courses will be accessible; thus, lessening the chance of an OCR complaint. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET) has a fact sheet titled Key Considerations for Educational Leaders available online at https://tech.ed.gov/files/2023/08/Key-Considerations-for-Educational-Leaders-One-Pager.pdf. OET also provides access to a series of blogs on accessibility at https://tech.ed.gov/accessibility. And Rocky Mountain ADA Center has an excellent article Accessibility in College Online Learning Curriculum available online at https://rockymountainada.org/resources/research/accessibility-college-online-learning-curriculum. College administrators, faculty and staff should become aware of these resources and work together to ensure accessibility to websites and online courses by people with disabilities.
[1] U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights. (Dec. 2017). Letter to the Chancellor .
Available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/investigations/more/10172271-a.pdf
[2] U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights. (2023). Protecting Students with Disabilities. Available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/504faq.html
[3] U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. Defining Accessibility. Available at https://tech.ed.gov/accessibility
[4] U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights. (Dec. 2017). Letter to the Chancellor .
Available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/investigations/more/10172271-a.pdf
[v] U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (2022). Case Processing Manual. Available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocrcpm.pdf
[vi] U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (2017) Resolution Agreement. [University of Alaska Anchorage, Kodiak College & Kenai Peninsula College OCR Reference Nos. 10172140, 10172270 & 10172271]. Available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/investigations/more/10172271-b.pdf
[vii] W3C. (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Available at https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21
Alan Fugleberg serves as Deputy Director for Summit Independent Living. He works from Summit’s offices in Hamilton and Ronan. Alan has personal experience with disability after sustaining a traumatic brain injury nearly 30 years ago. Alan earned three degrees from the University of Montana in Missoula (UM) including a Master of Public Administration degree. Alan served in several positions at UM including Associate Dean for Missoula College; and Assistant Director for Academic Affairs / Assistant Professor for Kodiak College, a community campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage. In 2018, he retired as Campus Director/Senior Administrative Officer for Kodiak College.