The American Disability Act (ADA), 1990 provides provisions to secure the rights of specially-abled people. Here's a checklist on how higher education institutes can comply with ADA.

1. ADA Accessibility Checklist
in Higher Education

2. Index
● What is ADA?
● Issues in Higher Ed and the ADA compliance
● The guiding principle to web accessibility
● Checklist: Complying with ADA
● Conclusion

3. “The National Association of the Deaf in 2015 slapped Harvard University
and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts federal court,
accusing them of discriminating against deaf and hard-of-hearing
people”

4. What is ADA?
The American Disability Act (ADA), 1990 provides provisions to secure
the rights of specially-abled people.
Although, when first passed, it focussed primarily on physical
properties, over time it has covered digital spaces too, which means
people can take a complaint to the court for discriminating and
violating the ADA act.

5. Issues in Higher Ed & the ADA Compliance
Lawsuits can be avoided by following WCAG 2.0. Since web accessibility
guidelines and best practices are already clear through WCAG 2.0.

6. The ADA Compliance
The ADA not only covers the general non-discriminatory guidelines but
also encourages organizations, institutions, and businesses to provide
accommodations to people with disabilities
The law was amended later in 2008 to fit the conditions of modern
society and include the digital space while broadening the term
“disability”.

7. The Guiding Principles to Web Accessibility
- POUR

8. Accessibility in higher education should not be restricted only to
lectures and videos. Accessing content should be intuitive. Making
navigation easier needs to be part of the plan.
● Perceivable
● Operable
● Understandable
● Robust

9. ● Perceivable
The content needs to be presented in different ways, including
assistive technologies, without losing its meaning. The easiest
way to do so is by providing alt-text for non-text content. The
content should be easier to see and hear.

10. ● Operable
The content is easy to operate upon. Web accessibility issues are
not synonymous with visibility issues, as is the popular myth.
They are as much a problem for people with hearing disability as
for a person with a neurological or cognitive disorder.

11. ● Understandable
Is the text readable for people with difference in visual ability?
This principle ensures that the content appears and operates in a
predictable way. This specifically focuses on the issues related to
color contrast.

13. ● Robust
Any content - written or multimedia - should be future proof.
Assistive technologies are advancing by leaps and bounds, and
your site needs to adapt and step up with upcoming trends in
hardware and software tools.
In order to keep the content robust, higher ed institutes need to
adhere to best practices or lose it the way University of California,
Berkeley had to lose 20,000 video and audio files from public view.

14. Checklist: Making Higher Ed Institutes ADA
Compliant

15. Under WCAG 2.0 priority levels are assigned to each checkpoint based
on its impact on accessibility. These levels were the following:
Priority 1: Conforming to this level will make it possible for one or more
groups to access the web content. This is level A.
Priority 2: Conforming to this level will make it easy for one or more
groups to access the web content. This is level AA.
Priority 3: Conforming to this level will make it easier for most of the
groups to access the web content. This is level AAA.

16. ● Provide web pages with titles that describe the topic or purpose of
the page.
● Make navigation easier by passing repeating blocks of content on
multiple pages.
● Content accessible through keyboard interface, including the ability
to pause and stop any presentation, audio or adjust the volume.
● In case of an input error made by the user, provide text information
specifying the item in error and the error itself.
Level A Conformance

17. ● Accessible through assistive technologies (such as screen readers)
without losing information.
● Using reasonable contrast to identify the content.
● Avoid designing content in a way that is known to cause seizures.

18. ● Provide captions for all live audio content and audio descriptions for all pre-
recorded video content.
● Text content and images of text with a contrast ratio of 4.5:1. Content that
serves only design purposes have no contrast requirements.
● Enable the user to resize the text up to 200 percent without any assistive
technology.
Level AA Conformance

19. ● Use of text over images, whenever possible.
● Provide multiple ways to locate web pages.
● Ensure the security of legal and financial data transactions are
reversible. Need to give the users an opportunity to recheck the
input data and the confirmation mechanism before finalizing
submission.

20. ● Support all pre-recorded audio content with sign language
interpretation and provide extended audio descriptions for all
prerecorded video content where the content can’t pause the
foreground audio and provide audio descriptions.
● The contrast ratio between text and images must be 7:1.
● Any pre-recorded audio content must provide users with context-
sensitive help.
● Provide users with a mechanism to choose foreground and
background colors.
Level AAA Conformance

21. ● Line spacing must be at least 1.5 spaces within paragraphs.
● Ensure the text can be adjusted up to 200 percent without the use of
assistive technologies.
● Allow users to postpone or suppress interruptions, except in the
case of emergency.
● Provide additional content when users require a more advanced
education level than lower secondary education (to 9th grade) to
understand the content.

22. It is worth noting that web accessibility compliance may not be
realistic for all websites depending on the type of content.
Drop a mail at hello@opensenselabs.com and connect with us if you
are planning to build a user-friendly education website.
Conclusion

23. THANK YOU