Accessibility of Digital Content and Information Technology

Yes. At this time, faculty members who regularly post recordings of their live class lectures on Canvas as supplemental course material should apply auto-generated captions to these videos, and do not need to human-edit these captions. Given the large number of web videos that must be made accessible, the University is currently focused on providing the most accurate captions – those that are edited by a human or created by a professional captioning service – in course-critical video content that is being consistently viewed. This will allow faculty members to focus their efforts on ensuring that their non-supplemental course videos are captioned with high accuracy and that their other course content is accessible.

When selecting course content materials from third-party providers, instructors should select accessible course content where possible. Where there is not accessible third-party content available that meets pedagogical goals, and instructors must use third-party content that does not yet meet accessibility standards, instructors should include a link in their Canvas course to the content on the site of the publisher, library, or other third-party content provider. Instructors should not integrate into Canvas, or include in Canvas, textbook or other third-party content that does not meet accessibility standards.

The University has not yet located a tool that can consistently make advanced math and STEM symbols, special notations, and equations digitally accessible. The Office for Digital Accessibility is actively investigating this issue. Given the current lack of tooling, instructors with these types of course content should focus their efforts on making the other portions of their courses accessible at this time. The Office for Digital Accessibility will be providing additional guidance over the coming months.

PDFs generally do not meet accessibility requirements and are difficult to remediate. It is recommended to display content in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides instead. With regard to security, you can prevent users from accessing, downloading, printing, or copying a Google document, sheet, or slide, just as you can with PDFs.

Here are the steps to limit access to a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file:

1. Open the file.
2. Click the "Share" button.
3. Go to General Access.
4. Use the dropdown menu to select who can access the file.

Here are the steps to prevent or limit downloading, printing, or copying of a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file:

1. Open the file.
2. Click the "Share" button.
3. Go to “Settings” (the gear in the upper righthand corner).
4. Use the check boxes to limit editors, or commenters and viewers, from downloading, printing, or copying the file.

No, unless the individual requests captioning. When providing the meeting recording to the requesting individual, ask the individual whether they require captioning. If they respond that they do, then provide the recording with accurate captions.

Possibly. In September 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced plans to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to reconsider whether certain provisions of the rule could be made less costly. An NPRM is an agency publication that outlines a proposed regulatory change and invites public comments. The DOJ indicated that it did not expect to issue regulatory changes within the next 12 months. To date, the DOJ has not released an NPRM for public comment.

In February 2026, the DOJ submitted an interim final rule to the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. The interim final rule carries the same title as the current digital accessibility rule, indicating that it will modify that rule. Information about the content of the interim final rule has not been released. The interim final rule could be published and become legally binding once OIRA completes its review. It is possible that this could occur before the upcoming April 24, 2026 regulatory implementation deadline for the University and other large public entities.

At this point, the University remains required to comply with the current digital accessibility rule by April 24, 2026. As a result, the University must continue to work steadily toward compliance with the rule’s requirements, which have been incorporated into the University’s Administrative Policy: Accessibility of Digital Content and Information Technology.