TIPS TO INCREASE DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY IN EDUCATION
Digital Accessibility in Education
Top teachers believe that the most significant barriers to students' educational success, from kindergarten to graduate school, have little to do with what happens in the classrooms. Non-academic factors such as family stress, poverty, and learning and psychological issues are the most significant impediments to academic success.
While these factors affect all students, digital accessibility in education becomes themost concerning factor for students with disabilities. That is because, while eLearning is supposed to make learning more convenient, it has actually broadened the accessibility gap that exists in education between students with and without disabilities. For students with disabilities, the mere possibility that learning materials will not be available in formats that will allow them to better learn or be tested is not only annoying, but also disturbing.
Digital Accessibility
Many educational institutions believe they are disability-inclusive in terms of educational accessibility. Even with being assured by this belief, a number of schools and universities have faced Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website accessibility-related claims.
Marcie Lipsett, the founder and co-chair of the Michigan Alliance for Special Education, has filed over 2,400 website accessibility complaints against schools under Title II of the ADA, which states in section 35.130 that no qualified individual with a disability shall be excluded from participation in or denied the benefits of a public entity's services, programs, or activities, or be discriminated against by any public entity.
Jason Camacho, a blind resident of Brooklyn, New York, is another example of looming claims against educational institutions for noncompliancewith digital accessibility requirements. Camacho filed a lawsuit against 50 colleges and universities for failing to make their websites accessible. He claimed that he went to a career fair where the institutions were present and that when he tried to get more information online, digital accessibility barriers prevented him from doing so. One of the institutions challenged the lawsuit, but lost, and the applicant's claims were settled in earnest.
Title III of the ADA (section 36.201) prohibits discrimination by requiring that no individual be discriminated against in the full and equal enjoyment of any place of public accommodation's goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations by any private entity that owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.
With a place of public accommodation defined as a facility operated by a private entity whose operations affect commerce and which is a nursery, elementary school, secondary school, a private learning institution that offers undergraduate or postgraduate education, or any other place of education, it implies that the ecommerce ada compliance prohibits educational institutions from discriminating against any person with a disability, regardless of whether the institution is public or private.
As a result, educational institutions with inaccessible websites and materials face the risk of potential lawsuits for web accessibility issues as well as using materials that are inaccessible to people with disabilities. These risks are heightened by the fact that learning institutions constantly rotate a diverse group of students who apply to and attend the institutions year after year, presenting them with a slew of new potential plaintiffs with a variety of disabilities and unique learning needs.
Educational institutions must proactively monitor their ADA accessibility compliance and make every effort to ensure that their websites and educational materials are accessible.
How Educational Institutions Can Ensure Digital Accessibility
- Strive to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
To ensure accessibility, educational institutions should become acquainted with and adhere to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (W3C). The guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities and include WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2. The guidelines are quite technical and may not be easily understood by educational institution administrators or educators. It is therefore recommended that educational institutions seek assistance from technology professionals in order to comply with the WCAG.
- Review all the existing online learning to ensure ADA compliance
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, educational institutions have rapidly increased their online learning, and the majority of their websites have become ecommerce websites, allowing the buying and selling of physical goods, services, and digital products over the Internet rather than in person. Given that the ADA requirements for digital accessibility bind website accessibility ecommerce, educational institutions should ensure that the contracts they signed with the vendors of their digital accessibility ecommerce provide for ADA compliance, that they have the ability to deliver ADA compliance and are indemnified, and that the educators and their aides understand and are skilled in the recognition and delivery of ADA accommodations.