Accessibility in Educational Technologies | Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Frequently Asked Questions - Title II Update

Last spring, the federal government updated the Americans with Disabilities Act to establish guidelines for digital content accessibility. Although Stony Brook has had a digital accessibility policy in place since 2022, the federal law mandates that all digital content must be accessible by April 2026.

The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching has compiled the list below of answers to questions we have gotten about the update.

About Title II

It is a subsection of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law in 1990. Under Title II, the law prohibits public entities from discriminating against any individual on the basis of disability.
“The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA is the technical standard for state and local governments’ web content and mobile apps” (Civil Rights Division, 2024).

Source: Civil Rights Division. (2024, April 8). Fact Sheet: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments. U.S. Department of Justice.
All of Stony Brook University (East Campus, West Campus, Stony Brook Medicine). This includes, but is not limited to:
- Faculty
- Graduate assistants
- Teaching assistants
- Staff
- Graduate and undergraduate students
There are five exceptions to the rule.
1. Sections of sites clearly identified as an "Archive" of old data (e.g., a news article or press release published in 2018).
2. Documents that are no longer used by/required for users (e.g., a flyer from a 2019 event).
3. Content posted by a third-party to an entity’s site (e.g., a local community member posts to social media and tags Stony Brook University). Note: Students are not considered a third-party under Title II and this exception does not apply to content they produce on university sites.
4. Password-protected Word, presentation, PDF, or spreadsheet files (does not apply to other file types or code). For example, a water bill in PDF format meant for a specific customer would be an except, whereas a general notice about a change in service to all customers would not apply. Note: Password-protected course content does not fall under this exception.
5. Pre-existing Social Media posts (e.g., a tweet from 2017 about a class cancellation).
Note, these exceptions only apply to content published prior to the April 2024 rule. If any content that once fell under the exception is revised, edited, or updated after April 2024 then it must be made accessible to meet the technical standard. For example, if archive course content from a Fall 2023 course is copied into a Fall 2026 course, the content in the new section needs to be remediated.
Yes, students are not exempt from the rule. If they are creating content that is being distributed to other members of the class digitally, it needs to be accessible and meet the guidelines.

Training and Support

CELT recommends he following three step process:
1. Review old digital content
  1. Remove old or outdated digital documents, web pages, and/or media so you can focus on making the remaining digital content accessible.
2. Remediate
  1. Start updating digital content that is not accessible or finding alternative content.
  2. Choose a strategy that works for you: Start by going over the material for the classes you teach most frequently and have the most students enrolled in. As an alternative, you could begin by updating a single kind of content across all of your courses, like Word documents, slide decks, or videos.
3. Recognize what makes a document accessible from the start
  1. Creating new content? Check out our tips on how you can make it accessible.

Having issues remediating course content? Schedule a CELT Accessibility Consultation to get one-on-one support.

If you have suggestions for additional guides, please reach out by emailing us at celt@stonybrook.edu.