By April 2026, all digital content, including websites, web applications and course materials, must be compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level AA. This is the accessibility standard set by a U.S. Department of Justice rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
UNMC must comply with this new rule by April 24, 2026. Significant effort is needed before the deadline in order to remediate existing digital content and to train content managers and faculty and staff members to create accessible content.
Accessibility work at UNMC is taking place on several fronts, but accessibility is a shared responsibility across the UNMC community.
The required standards apply to:
– Public-facing websites.
– Course materials and academic content.
– Digital documents and forms.
– Mobile applications.
– Social media.
– Videos, podcasts and photos.
Website and web application accessibility
This work is led by UNMC Strategic Communications and IT DevOps.
Web content managers across UNMC are required to attend virtual training sessions on either Thursday, May 22, from noon to 1 p.m., or Tuesday, June 3, from 3 to 4 p.m. Web content managers have received a registration link to sign up for one of the dates.
This training on accessibility fundamentals is mandatory to maintain access to our content management systems: Cascade, WordPress or Wikimedia.
Additional sessions will be scheduled on specific topics, such as document remediation. For more information, email Stacie Hamel, director of projects and digital strategy, UNMC Department of Strategic Communications.
Course accessibility
This work on academic and curriculum design is led by Jane Meza, PhD, interim vice chancellor for UNMC Academic Affairs. A group of individuals will be identified by each college and institute as points of contact for their instructors, as well as to provide information to Dr. Meza’s team.
Training will be offered to faculty and staff members for remediating course content and creating new content. Ally, a tool designed to improve course usability and accessibility, has been enabled in UNMC’s Canvas platform, and baseline scores will be established. Ally automatically checks course content and files uploaded to Canvas for accessibility issues.
Faculty members are asked to run Ally reports two weeks before each semester and again eight weeks after the start. Instructional designers and Canvas college administrators will work with faculty and staff members to ensure compliance targets are met.
For more information, email Frank Bogatz, chief academic technology officer.
Drop in for one-on-one help
Julie Gregg and Michael Kozak are available to help with course compliance on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Faculty Commons at the McGoogan Health Sciences Library.