How Can Educators Protect Their Institutions Against a New Wave of Digital Accessibility Lawsuits?

Why online learning raises accessibility risks

Even before COVID-19, teachers and students were under pressure to adopt new technologies and adapt to new ways of teaching and learning. The pandemic has massively accelerated this trend: with classrooms closed around the world, a robust online education platform is no longer a differentiator or a nice-to-have — it’s a fundamental necessity for your institution’s survival.

It’s also a necessity to ensure the content provided on these online platforms is accessible for students with disabilities, such as those who rely on screen readers or other assistive technology. If your online content isn’t created with accessibility in mind, these individuals will be severely disadvantaged.

And since nearly 7 million students(opens in a new tab) in the U.S. — 14 percent of the entire national public school enrollment[1] — are living with a disability, that’s a huge proportion of the population whose rights are potentially being infringed.

And in case those numbers make the problem seem too large to comprehend, just take a look at a few personal accounts of how accessibility issues cause real problems for individual students—like this moving story of Micah Lafonte’s struggles(opens in a new tab) with his school’s learning management system.

Fortunately, the law is on the side of students like Micah: this type of discrimination is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as contravening a host of other federal and state laws. For example, all public schools in the U.S. are bound by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973(opens in a new tab), as are private schools that have received funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act(opens in a new tab) or other federal schemes[2].

In addition to private lawsuits, any complaints against schools for contravening Section 504 could also trigger an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights(opens in a new tab) (OCR) — putting any future federal funding at risk if the issues are not resolved.

Protecting your institution

The huge increase in lawsuits over the past few weeks demonstrates that there’s a clear legal risk for institutions whose websites and online learning platforms fall foul of accessibility legislation.

So, how can your institution protect itself against the significant legal costs and reputational damage of an accessibility lawsuit? And more importantly, how can you ensure that all your students enjoy the same engaging, accessible learning experience, regardless of whether or not they are living with a disability?

Leading by example

Misericordia University(opens in a new tab) in Dallas, Pasadena, turned to AudioEye to help it boost the accessibility of its websites and mitigate the risk of litigation. AudioEye provides its fully managed service, which monitors, manages and remediates any errors in the university’s digital content, using a combination of automated tools and human-in-the-loop feedback from AudioEye’s accessibility experts.

The solution integrates seamlessly with the university’s existing Finalsite(opens in a new tab) content management system (CMS), enabling faculty to add and edit content freely while relying on the safety-net of the AudioEye service to catch and fix accessibility issues. As a result, the university is able to maintain an accessibility rating of above 95 percent at any given time — more than 20 points higher than the education industry standard.

As Dave Johndrow, Manager, PC Services, Misericordia University, puts it: “Just having the AudioEye accessibility icon on every page on our site is like having the big dog on the porch. We’re demonstrating to every visitor not only our compliance, but our commitment to true inclusivity.”

If you’d like to learn more about how Misericordia benefits from AudioEye’s managed service, you can watch their video testimonial(opens in a new tab). Or to take a deeper dive into AudioEye’s accessibility solutions and services, reach out to our team of digital accessibility experts.

[1] National Center for Education Statistics data: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64(opens in a new tab)

[1] Educational institutions are required by law to make their digital content accessible to people with disabilities. Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibit disability discrimination. If your educational institution receives federal funds, it also falls under the requirements of Section 504. If your digital content does not meet with ADA compliance standards, you could become the target of an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.