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.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it plans to make changes to this rule. However, these changes are unlikely to be made prior to the rule’s April 2026 effective date when the University must begin complying with the rule’s digital accessibility requirements.

As context, on September 22, 2025, the DOJ announced that it is planning to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to reconsider whether some of the regulatory provisions imposed by the new digital accessibility rule could be made less costly. An NPRM is an agency publication that describes a proposed regulatory change and solicits public comments. The DOJ has currently identified the NPRM related to the new digital accessibility rule as a long-term action, meaning that the DOJ does not expect to have a regulatory action on this topic within 12 months. At this point, it is not known what changes will be made to the new digital accessibility rule or when these changes will take effect.

Given that the DOJ has identified this planned rulemaking as a long-term action, it does not currently appear that changes to the new digital accessibility rule will be implemented prior to the rule’s April 2026 effective date. 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.