North Carolina community colleges and public universities are rapidly approaching a federal deadline to ensure their website and mobile content has sufficient accessibility for people with disabilities.
When the US Department of Justice updated Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 2024, the agency created a two-year window for public agencies to ensure their digital materials comply.
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Now that deadline is coming in hot, with some universities ahead of the curve and others finding themselves at the back of the pack.
The UNC System told Carolina Public Press because of the size and diversity of its institutions, implementation of the guidelines is being handled at the individual university level. Colleges generally seem well-poised to take on the responsibilities according to their university webpages on the subject, though few were willing to discuss the changes openly.
New accessibility requirements
The DOJ is utilizing a standard called the Web Accessibility Content Guide, or WCAG, Version 2.1, Level AA as its technical standard. While entities can have a higher standard of accessibility if they choose, the WCAG will be the new baseline for web content and mobile apps.
Four key principles are involved with WCAG 2.1, Level AA — perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.
“Perceivable” requires text alternatives for images and on-text media, captions for videos and transcripts for audio, resizable text and sufficient contrast. “Operable” means all website functions can be completed via the keyboard, for example.
“Understandable” indicates content should be readable and predictable, meaning it is consistent across the same site.
“Robust” asks that content be compatible with and generally support accessibility and assistive technology.
Public entities that serve a population of 50,000 or more are expected to be in compliance by April 24. Given that public universities serve the entire state, that includes UNC System schools and North Carolina community colleges. But what exactly compliance looks like remains unclear for some and simply unrealistic to others.
Working toward compliance
Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations at North Carolina A&T Todd Simmons told CPP that digital accessibility has been a priority for the university for at least a decade now, so they weren’t as unprepared for the changes as some other schools might have been.
One thing that makes A&T different from most is that publishing abilities to university websites is left entirely to Simmons and his office. That allows for Simmons’ team to review everything for accessibility requirements before it’s posted and ask for revisions if they aren’t being met.
“We’re monitoring our own accessibility scores, seeing where we have opportunities for improvement, but we’re in a very good place already,” Simmons said. “So the need to sprint toward the finish line here is a little bit less for A&T than we’re hearing for some other folks.”
Some higher ed experts feel universities are ill-prepared to adopt the necessary changes by April. A 2025 study found just 10% of faculty members believed their institution provides “absolutely adequate” tools to support students with disabilities, and a third of respondents said they were “not at all” aware of the ADA’s new requirements.
An NC State spokesperson referred CPP to its webpage on digital accessibility which provides guidance to those within the university on making their materials accessible. It states the top priority is making content accessible to the general public.
“This is because we don’t know whether the user has a disability that affects how they engage with and consume digital content. An estimated 20% of the population has a disability that may affect how they operate in digital environments,” the site says.
“NC State’s digital content includes any websites, documents, forms, registration or reservation portals, and mobile apps associated with university services, programs and activities. This also includes third-party digital content and platforms that provide services directly associated with NC State.”
Its second priority is internal content requiring a university login as that content has a smaller audience, posing “less risk of non-compliance.” The same logic applies to which courses should be prioritized first.
“Prioritize academic course content in the same way,” the site says. “Courses with the highest enrollment will have the highest likelihood that someone will need access. You should also consider when those courses are offered. Focus on courses offered in Summer 2026 and Fall 2026 before those offered in Spring 2027 and later.”
UNC-Chapel Hill didn’t have a representative available for an interview, though it has robust information on its Digital Accessibility Office site housed in Information Technology Services, including toolkits and several upcoming Zoom trainings for faculty and staff. Its public compliance plan includes information on vendor management and procurement, as third-party content is still subject to the regulations.
One of the system’s smallest schools by enrollment, UNC-Asheville, has a webpage on do’s and don’t’s of accessibility. It instructs university personnel to include alternative text on images, create hyperlinks with descriptive text, include transcripts of audio content, ensure color combinations have enough contrast and more.
UNC-Wilmington’s site simply states its commitment to ensuring its webpages and mobile apps meet the new standards. UNC-Greensboro provides guides for making content digitally accessible and a space to submit requests for help. Other universities seem to have little to no mention of digital accessibility on their websites.
A&T is part of a statewide network of campuses sharing resources and tips on how they are working to meet the requirements. That’s been helpful to everyone, even schools like A&T that have been making strides since before the new requirements, Simmons said.
There aren’t clear guidelines on what “compliance” with the rules looks like, but A&T is doing the most with what it has. At the end of the day, they just want to ensure university information, especially when it comes to application materials, is accessible to any user at any time.
Progress not perfection
The new regulations apply to all public entities from the largest university in the state to the smallest community college, from the most bustling city to the quietest county. Both scenarios present their own challenges for implementing the expansive new rules.
Judy Risch worked in the Office of Civil Rights in the US Department of Education for 20 years where she headed up the National Digital Accessibility Team, the first of its kind in the federal government. She later worked in private consulting for higher ed before leaving to work at a university part-time along with some private consulting work on her own.
Generally speaking, bigger schools have better resources to aid in large undertakings like this, Risch said. But they also have much larger digital footprints and triple the amount of class materials to update, which can actually make it more challenging for larger institutions even though smaller schools might have less specialized help.
The top thing for colleges and universities to remember as they navigate these changes is to not let perfection be the enemy of the good, Risch said.
“Nobody will be compliant on April 24, 2026,” Risch said. “It’s not possible. Like, your website can be very good. Nothing is going to be perfect. Everybody’s trying, but this is not doable, even with the two years that was given.”
The government adopted Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in a 1998 amendment that required agencies to make their Information and Communication Technology accessible to people with disabilities. Even so, knowing what people know now, the accessibility laws should have been amended in 1999 or 2000, Risch said.
Now, everyone is left with more than 30 years’ worth of content that needs to be fixed. Two years simply isn’t enough time.
However, North Carolina has already done great work in digital accessibility so far, Risch said. Several universities in the state have been robustly involved in digital accessibility for years now, and the community colleges spearheaded a system-wide initiative more than 10 years ago.
So while there might be some campuses dragging behind, most are in the know and well-equipped, including private colleges like Wake Forest University which are not currently subject to the new requirements — though there is an expectation that they will be in the near future. Faculty involved with UNC CAUSE also meet at a conference once a year to discuss issues of technology within North Carolina schools, as well as in special interest groups to focus on matters like digital accessibility throughout the year.
“There’s stuff going on in the state of North Carolina that is probably ahead of the curve,” Risch said.
For cases in which websites are not perfectly up to code, the regulation does provide some grace, which Risch called minimal nonconformance, as long as four baseline standards are met.
In that case, the entity must demonstrate their noncompliance has such minimal impact that it would not impact the ability of people with disabilities to “(a) Access the same information as individuals without disabilities; (b) Engage in the same interactions as individuals without disabilities; (c) Conduct the same transactions as individuals without disabilities; and (d) Otherwise participate in or benefit from the same services, programs, and activities as individuals without disabilities.”
While the regulations can seem abstract to those who don’t use accessibility measures, some tangible differences will be clear to most people in their classroom and digital experience. The requirements will ensure better captioning during recorded lectures and accompanying videos, better usability in downloaded content like PDFs and slideshows and an overall more mobile-friendly experience.
The current focus on digital accessibility can be compared to the work done for physical accessibility during the disability rights movement throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, Risch said. Just like the additional infrastructure brought on by early iterations of the ADA — like ramps, curb cuts and elevators — might not be impactful to those who don’t require it, new digital accessibility standards can be life changing for others.
“In the ‘70s, you wouldn’t assume there’d be an elevator in a building, for example,” she said. “But today, you never build a two-story building without an elevator. An elevator being there doesn’t impact most people, but the impact is huge for people with disabilities.”
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