ADA Title II Regulations

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public entities, which include state and local governments and their departments, agencies, and instrumentalities. It ensures that individuals with disabilities have equal access to all services, programs, and activities provided by these entities.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice published updated regulations clarifying how Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)  applies to digital content at public colleges and universities. The new rules significantly expand digital accessibility requirements for Monroe Community College as a public institution, impacting all college units and functions. The revised rule mandates that all web content and mobile apps (digital content) must:

• Be readily accessible to and useable by people with disabilities upfront; and
• Meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards - the most widely accepted global benchmark for digital accessibility—by April 24, 2026.

The revised regulations:

• Apply to all public-facing, student-facing, and employee-facing content, whether provided directly by the college or through third parties.
• Apply to all faculty-created (digital) course materials including syllabi, readings, videos, slides, online assessments and more.
• Require captions, readable documents, alternative text for images, and accessible navigation.
• Allow limited exceptions (e.g., for archived or legacy content not currently used for active instruction).

Meeting these new requirements necessitates a fundamental culture shift - from a reactive approach, responding to individual accommodation requests - to proactively ensuring all digital content is accessible from the start. While the compliance deadline of April 24, 2026, is critical, our obligations under the ongoing resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights remain. We must continue meeting these requirements while working to fully integrate accessibility into our practices, reflecting our shared values of inclusion that help define Monroe Community College.

• Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments
• First Steps Toward Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Web and Mobile Application Accessibility Rule

The new regulations apply broadly to web content, which is anything viewable via a web browser, including conventional electronic documents and mobile apps. Digital content that the college provides or makes available, directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, must be accessible. Importantly, this also encompasses all course-related materials, including those within Brightspace and other documents behind a login.

Examples of the types of digital content covered by the new regulations include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Websites and web applications such as college websites, departmental sites, and faculty pages, including both public sites and websites or webpages behind a login; online portals for student services, registration, and financial transactions; online research applications; library databases; web-based learning management systems such as Brightspace.
• Mobile apps for accessing college systems and resources.
• Digital documents and materials such as PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents that are used for instructional or informational purposes.
• Multimedia content such as online video, webinars, streamed events, audio recordings and podcasts.
• E-learning and online courses such as online course content and platforms; web-based textbooks; web-based and mobile tools for submitting assignments, participating in discussions, and taking exams; video conferencing tools used for virtual classrooms.

Campus compliance with the ADA is a shared responsibility and faculty and staff members play an important role in the college’s efforts by providing digital content.

As the creators and stewards of digital content, you have a vital role to play in ensuring users with disabilities aren’t excluded. Small actions - like writing descriptive link text or uploading a tagged PDF - can remove major barriers.