How to Guides

Title II Resources

In 2024, the Department of Justice updated its regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), mandating that all university web and mobile content conform to the WCAG 2.1 AA standards for web accessibility by April 24, 2026.  This page includes resources for helping SAS faculty and staff create and maintain accessible web content that will comply with the updated standards while providing a positive experience for our community.

Accessibility Training  Website Accessibility Scans  Creating Accessible Web Content  Document Remediation  Canvas Course Guidance  Creating Accessible Math Content  Roles and Responsibilities for Accessibility Compliance

 

Accessibility Training

Live Training

Video Training

  • Accessibility and Websites - This workshop demonstrates the importance of web accessibility and how to make accessibility a part of our standard routine. We test web pages to identify accessibility violations and learn how to fix them. We also learn how to manage links, images, headings, and other web page elements to maximize the accessibility of our websites.
  • Document Remediation video - Please note: access to this video is restricted to Rutgers users. 

 

Website Accessibility Scans

SAS-hosted Joomla! websites: Deque axeMonitor

SAS IT Services staff will conduct regular accessibility scans of SAS websites using the Deque axeMonitor software, which is available to us through our membership in the Big 10 Academic Alliance. The SAS IT Services web team will remediate accessibility issues found within web content.   Accessibility issues found within documents (such as PDF files) will be reported to the units, who will need to either remove the documents, or remediate them using the resources listed under Document Remediation below. 

DIY websites:  Rutgers A11y - Accessibility Audit Tool

If you manage a Rutgers website that is not maintained by the SAS IT Web Team, please refer to the documentation for the Rutgers A11y - Accessibility Audit Tool.

 

Creating Accessible Web Content

These resources are intended to help faculty and staff create and maintain accessible web pages: 

Resources

The following documents are part of Rutgers Information Technology's Web Accessibility Checklist:

 

Document Remediation

These resources are intended to help faculty and staff remediate accessibility issues found within documents hosted on their websites.

Remediation Resources

Before remediating a document, consider whether it still needs to be hosted on your website.  It may be easier to remove old documents, and the links to those files, than it would be to complete the remediation process.

If the information in the document does need to remain on your website, consider converting the document to a Joomla! article, which will be much easier to remediate than the document would be. 

Archiving Documents

Under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), certain content is exempt from meeting the WCAG 2.1, Level AA standards. For example, archived web content that meets all four of the following points would not need to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA:

  1. The content was created before the date the state or local government must comply with this rule, or reproduces paper documents or the contents of other physical media (audiotapes, film negatives, and CD-ROMs for example) that were created before the government must comply with this rule, AND
  2. The content is kept only for reference, research, or recordkeeping, AND
  3. The content is kept in a special area for archived content, AND
  4. The content has not been changed since it was archived.

In addition, archived documents should be identified to the visitor using language similar to the following:

"This archived document is no longer maintained and may not meet accessibility standards. To request content in an accessible format, contact us."

(Note that the words "contact us" in the above example should be linked to the website's "Contact Us" page). 

If you need assistance archiving documents on your website, please submit a helpdesk request and our web team will assist you.

 

Canvas Course Guidance

Are you wondering how to make your Canvas course site more accessible and usable, though not sure where to start? Join us in February, March, or April for a 10-Day Course Accessibility Challenge. If you need help or have questions, please contact Eliza Blau and the SAS Teaching and Learning Team. 

 

Creating Accessible Math Content

Rutgers Access & Disability Resources is working on publishing resources designed to help instructors create accessible math content.  In the meantime, please refer to the following resources:

 

Roles and Responsibilities for Accessibility Compliance

SAS IT (Web Team)

  • Review and resolve issues on pages managed by SAS IT, including general content updates.

Departments & Chairs (support and guidance from the SAS IT team as needed)

  • Oversee faculty-created content (primarily documents) on SAS department websites are compliant.
  • Ensure faculty materials are reviewed, remediated for accessibility, archived, or removed if non-compliant or no longer needed.

Faculty Members (support and guidance from the Teaching and Learning team as needed)

  • Maintain accessibility for Canvas course content, research pages, and documents.
  • Convert PDFs and instructional materials for Canvas into accessible formats or move them into accessible web formats.

Department Administrative Staff (support and guidance from the SAS IT team as needed)

  • Verify that event materials including flyers and graphics meet accessibility standards on the department websites.

Support

Connect with Rutgers