Digital Accessibility for Instruction
Changes to Digital Accessibility in Course Content
The U.S. Department of Justice finalized Title II regulations requiring all digital content at public institutions of Illinois' size to be accessible by April 2026.
In response, campus leadership has prioritized accessibility improvements for courses that either (1) enroll 200 or more students or (2) are required for a degree program. These accessibility requirements apply to all digital course materials, including documents, media, and external resources.
You can learn more about the official Title II ruling from the ADA Title II Fact Sheet.
Why Accessibility Matters
Digital accessibility ensures that all online content, tools, and platforms are usable for our university community. This includes compliance with standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, ensuring content is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust for all users. Creating accessible digital content allows us to foster an inclusive environment for students, faculty, staff and the broader community, as it is estimated that 1 in 4 individuals have some form of disability.
If you have questions about the information provided on this page, want help with identifying additional resources, or want dedicated training/support, please contact Anya Kanevskaya or Rob Bennett, the Engineering IT representatives in the IT Accessibility Liaison program.
What Support is Available?
Engineering IT is here to support you. Email our eLearning team for a consultation, dedicated training, accessibility questions, and more.
For All Courses That Enroll More Than 200 Learners
Following the campus lead, Grainger College of Engineering will prioritize proactive work on large-enrollment face-to-face and online courses. We will begin reaching out to Executive Officers, coordinators, and instructors for our largest courses to develop course-specific remediation plans. This support will include the eLearning team reviewing course content in Canvas and other learning management systems. Our team will work collaboratively with instructors to make sure content meets Title II accessibility requirements without changing the meaning of your content.
For All Other Courses
We encourage instructors to attend training workshops on the variety of accessibility topics hosted by the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL). These workshops will equip you with basic skills that will address most foundational accessibility requirements.
What Should I Do as Faculty?
- Start small, start now.
- Use a built-in accessibility checker within Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files to check to errors and alerts with your content.
- If you are using Canvas as your course site, utilize the accessibility tool PopeTech to make sure that your course content is accessible.
- If you are not using Canvas as your course site, review your course site with the assistance of the WAVE accessibility tool or another preferred checker.
- Review Math Accessibility Guidelines from CITL for making math accessible.
- Attend Accessibility Office Hours or other workshops from Engineering IT.
- Fill out the accessibility support form for a dedicated consultation from Engineering IT.
- Attend or watch Quick Start Workshops on accessibility from CITL.
- Review CITL's resources on how to Make Your Course Accessible.
- Remediate documents by submitting them to the Accessibility Remediation force.
- Take the Accessibility 101 Training course for in-depth learning.
- Find additional course accessibility resources.
Templates
Upcoming Events
Are you ready to transform the way you teach?
Contact Engineering IT’s eLearning team at engrit-help-elearning@illinois.edu to schedule a
consultation, request a training, or ask questions about the digital accessibility of your courses.
Join us in exploration of high-quality instructional technologies that will further enhance the exemplary teaching in the Grainger College of Engineering.