New Resources Support Georgia Tech’s Digital Accessibility Efforts

Earlier this year, Georgia Tech shared information about updated digital accessibility requirements under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Institute's work to help ensure that digital content and services are accessible to all members of our community.

Since then, the federal compliance deadline has been extended to April 26, 2027, and Georgia Tech has expanded the tools and resources available to help the campus community prepare.

"The extended deadline gives our community more time to make thoughtful, sustainable progress, and Georgia Tech has expanded the tools, guidance, and training available to support that work," said Jarmon DeSadier, vice president for Equal Opportunity, Compliance, and Conflict Management. "We need to keep the momentum going. By building accessibility into how we create and maintain digital content now, we can reduce the need for remediation later and help ensure a more inclusive learning and working environment for everyone."

Extended Deadline
The U.S. Department of Justice extended the Title II of the ADA digital accessibility compliance deadline applicable to Georgia Tech by one year, to April 26, 2027.

This additional time gives faculty and staff more opportunity to assess their digital content, build accessibility into their everyday work, and address existing content that needs to be updated. The extended timeline does not change the importance of this work or the accessibility standard. The Title II rule continues to use WCAG 2.1 Level AA as its technical standard.

More Resources Are Available to Help
Over the past several months, Georgia Tech teams have continued to expand the guidance, tools, training, and support available through the Digital Accessibility website. The site serves as a central resource for making digital content, including websites, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, instructional course materials, and multimedia, accessible.

Key resources include:

• Get Started guidance for assessing digital resources and developing an action plan for content that should be removed, archived, or remediated.
• Roles and responsibilities for instructors and faculty, administrators and staff, technical staff, librarians, and students.
• Role-related road maps to guide instructors and staff through common challenges ranging from everyday administrative and communication needs to more complex instructional materials, including formulas and scientific equations.
• Testing and remediation resources, including enterprise tools for digital documents and website accessibility scanning and remediation.
• Training and workshops to help campus users understand and apply accessibility practices. Additional workshops will be added to the website as they become available. Visit the Recorded Workshops webpage to view previously conducted workshops.

What You Can Do Now and Moving Forward
If you create, manage, or share digital content on behalf of Georgia Tech, make the following steps an ongoing part of your digital content routine:

1. Take inventory of the websites, documents, presentations, multimedia, and other digital resources you manage. Make a plan to remediate existing content in time to fully comply with the April 26, 2027, deadline.
2. Prioritize your work, beginning with content required for instruction, employment, or campus services; public-facing or frequently used materials; and new or actively maintained content.
3. Use Georgia Tech's testing and remediation tools to identify and address digital accessibility content issues. In addition to the instructional faculty and staff accessibility road maps, review the Testing and Remediation Tools webpage for quick links to enterprise resources to address documents and instructional materials.
4. Continue to test and remediate your websites. Since February, the Office of Information Technology has sent direct communications to owners and managers of 425 websites about how to claim their website in the Website Asset Inventory process and begin scanning their websites using DubBot. If you have created a new website since February, submit a request to [email protected] to be added to the Website Asset Inventory. Learn more about this process, including knowledge articles, on the Testing and Remediation Tools webpage.
5. Build accessibility into new content from the start so that remediation becomes less necessary over time.

Accessibility Is an Ongoing Commitment
The extended deadline gives Georgia Tech valuable additional time to prepare, but digital accessibility is about more than a date on the calendar. It is an ongoing commitment to creating digital experiences that allow everyone to fully participate in the academic, research, and working life of the Institute.

Explore the tools, guidance, training, and resources available at digitalaccess.gatech.edu.