Digital and Web Accessibility Requirement at WCU
Frequently Asked Questions
This FAQ summarizes key information from the October 22, 2025 Digital Accessibility Open Forum. It outlines what the new federal requirements mean for West Chester University and how faculty, staff, and departments can prepare. For a complete list of resources or to simply learn more, visit the University's Web and Digital Accessibility website.
Q: What is the new federal rule about? How does it differ from what the University
already has in place?
A: The U.S. Department of Justice’s ADA Title II Web and Mobile Accessibility Rule requires
all public entities, including WCU, to ensure websites, learning management systems
(D2L), digital applications, and online documents provided to students, employees
or the public meet WCAG 2.1 AA standard to be “accessible.” This includes third-party
applications, mobile applications, and social media. The new regulation applies
a technical standard across all of these areas. Previously, the University only used
this technical standard of accessibility for university websites. The new regulation
will apply the standard more broadly across digital content and platforms. The new
federal regulation was enacted on April 24, 2024, and goes into effect on April 24,
2026.
Q: How is this different from before?
A: Now, there are measurable technical standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) that all new and existing
digital content must meet across university platforms.
Q: Who is responsible for compliance? Are we responsible for remediating all digital/online
content stored for reference/use AND new content/apps/web forms?
A: Digital accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. University websites already employ
accessibility checkers. As it relates to courses, no action is required for courses
taught prior to the date the regulation goes into effect. Past courses that students
can still access can be noted as “archived” or made inactive.
By or before April 26, 2025, course instructors and web content editors will need to
- Review: review instructional materials or web content for Summer and Fall 2026 and beyond and then choose one of the following 3Rs:
- Retire: remove materials that are outdated or no longer in use from D2L, other platforms used to distribute materials, and/or the WCU website
- Replace: replace materials with accessible versions
- Remediate: remediate inaccessible but essential materials
Accessibility checkers are available to all faculty and staff in the form of software. In addition, faculty are encouraged to work with the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and/or University Library. As it relates to course content or course reserves, the University Library can assist you in finding accessible versions of your course content. The TLC offers consultation and resources to assist you with remediating course content. For University websites, please work in partnership with Dan Swift and Web Team Services. Training on accessibility practices is currently available through FAST trainings offered through IS&T, as well as the TLC. Workshops on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) concepts are currently available through the TLC and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance (EQOC). Additional trainings will be made available throughout the spring semester and beyond.
Q: What content must be accessible?
A: All digital or online materials used to deliver programs, services, employment, or
classes—web pages, PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoints, videos, forms, and mobile apps,
etc. Archived or legacy materials must be made accessible upon request.
Q: What is expected of us? Do we have to identify accessibility issues? Do we have
to remediate files ourselves, or will there be support?
A: We expect all University employees to create and/or post accessible digital content.
This is done by working with the University to ensure compliance. This may require
that you participate in trainings and workshops that build greater skills and competencies
on web and digital accessibility, create “accessibility habits” for yourself by regularly
utilizing “accessibility checkers” provided through software, and/or utilizing key
resources such the TLC, University Library, IS&T FAST trainings, or other University
resources. Visit the Web and Digital Accessibility website which lists available tools and provides training videos.
Q: Does this include email and social media? Q: How will the new guidelines affect
my correspondence with colleagues?
A: The new guidelines apply to emails sent out broadly to faculty, staff, or students,
including students enrolled in a course, or students in a program, college, or department.
But this guideline does not apply to emails sent between colleagues. Emails with
attachments or graphics shared publicly must meet accessibility standards, and social
media posts should include captions and image descriptions.
Q: Does this apply to email graphics and attachments?
A: Yes, graphics and attachments in broadly distributed emails need to be accessible.
Images included in your emails should have descriptive alt text, or if images are
included as an attachment, any information contained in that image should also appear
in the body of the email.
Q: How do these new regulations compare with our current practices when posting information
on our website?
A: The web team adopted these standards over 10 years ago, so the ruling by the Department
of Justice enhances engagement around current best practices when posting information
on WCU websites. As a result, the University expects anyone with permission to edit
University websites to increase their knowledge and use of accessible practices. This
must be a shared responsibility from all departments across the University with the
web team.
Q: Does this ADA regulation apply to any changes to department's websites?
A: The regulation applies to all our webpages as well as social media. But keep in mind,
the web team adopted these standards over 10 years ago. The web team is happy to
help with accessibility components, but they rely heavily on subject matter experts
to determine the content that should be posted.
Q: How can we best communicate this information to students who work on our social
media channels?
A: When it comes to social media, University Communications and Marketing is creating
a how-to video for social media accessibility for the top-use platforms, The video
is expected to become available in January.
Q: How can we make D2L accessible? How will this affect the current D2L set-up? Will
the University be using a new system?
A: All active courses must comply with WCAG 2.1 AA beginning Summer 2026 and beyond.
Yuja Panorama will be incorporated in all D2L courses beginning Winter 2025 to serve
as a main tool for identifying accessibility issues. In some instances, Yuja can
also be used to fix or remediate accessibility issues.
Q: Who is going to review D2L courses to ensure accessibility?
A: Faculty will be responsible for reviewing their own materials in D2L, with the assistance
of accessibility checking software. Currently, there are accessibility checkers available
in Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office products, and D2L’s editor; starting with Winter
courses, the Yuja Panorama accessibility checker will also be integrated into D2L.
The University will be able to monitor D2L accessibility across the University and
will provide strategic outreach to faculty and staff to assist with meeting the technical
standard when needed.
Q: Do all courses on D2L need to be updated?
A: No, only course sites that students can access need to be updated. The TLC recommends
focusing on upcoming courses and deactivating any course sites that are no longer
in use.
Q: Do my Zoom lecture recordings that I post on D2L need to be made web accessible,
or are they already web accessible?
A: Yes, link Zoom recordings through Panopto, as it s caption editor is easier and auto-captioning
is more accurate. The primary concern for the accessibility of lecture recordings
is whether the automatically generated captions have been edited for accuracy. For
support with the most efficient workflow for editing these captions, please contact
the TLC.
Q: Are automatic captions enough? How can we ensure automatically generated captions
are accurate?
A: No. Auto-captions must be reviewed and edited for accuracy before sharing with students,
employees, or the public. Although the accuracy of automatically generated captions
is now relatively high, these captions will need to be reviewed manually to make sure
proper nouns and technical terms have been transcribed correctly.
Q: Will WCU provide tools or software? What resources are available to assist with
this? Where can I get help or training?
A: Yes. Currently, everything that Office 365 offers, such as email, Word, PowerPoint,
Excel, etc. has a built-in accessibility checker. In addition, Yuja Panorama will
have a standalone site that will be available to everyone at WCU. The library offers resources to help faculty with course reserves. If an accessible document
can be found in the many databases, faculty can link directly to that document with
a permalink. If not, faculty can put in a request through Course Reserves. The library
will get a copy and make sure it is accessible and have it uploaded. There are training
opportunities through FAST – the faculty and staff training site. There are several trainings on how to create accessible content. There will also
be workshops and training available through the TLC. In addition, sessions will be available through the RECAP conference in May.
Q: When will the accessibility-checking software be available for all of us? We need
access to this now so we can get going on edits.
A: Currently, everything that Office 365 offers such as email, Word, PowerPoint, Excel,
etc. has a built-in accessibility checker. These are available to everyone. The timeline
for Yuja integration and the standalone site will be announced as soon as possible.
Q: Does WCU have a list of guidelines for working with outside vendors for WCAG 2.1
compliance?
A: IS&T is building a process into the University’s IT procurement process for software.
There is already a security review, and now there will be an accessibility review
as well to make sure that they're meeting the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.
Q: What about third-party platforms? How do we know if 3rd Party Vendors for Digital
Platforms meet these requirements?
A: WCU personnel are working to validate platforms for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. In addition,
because the new ruling applies to all public agencies, many suppliers or third-party
vendors are aware of the ruling and have been planning for it for several years. As
such, you will find many existing products (ex. Microsoft, Adobe, e-textbooks, etc.),
as well as new products may prioritize accessibility on the front end of their design
or within the supplemental materials they provide.
Q: How does this requirement and process differ from the current students' accommodation
process through the Office for Educational Accessibility (OEA)?
A: The regulation requires that the University implement a standard, which may equate
in some ways to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL requires proactively making
materials accessible on the front end, whether a person has a disability or not. Digital
accessibility helps everyone by unlocking features in our technologies that some people
need, and others often simply appreciate. This regulation is separate from the interactive
process of OEA as it relates to individual student accommodations. In some cases,
building a course based on the principles of Universal Design can reduce the amount
of course modification needed to address individual student accommodations.
Q: What if I have questions in the future, who should I email?
A: Email the digital and web accessibility task force at watf@wcupa.edu