Virginia Community Colleges launch Digital Accessibility Compliance Initiative

Nearly 61 million adults in the United States live with a disability. That's about one out of every five of us. Disabilities impact lives in ways that are both visible and not immediately apparent, affecting mobility, cognition, vision, hearing, and more. In response, the federal government, acting through the U.S. Justice Department, is mandating that all public colleges and universities nationwide ensure that their digital content and systems meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards by April 2026. The accessibility mandate covers public-facing, student-facing, and internal materials, as well as websites, forms, applications, administrative platforms and course content.

"This is a shared commitment of our system administration and our colleges," said VCCS Chancellor David Doré. "We all produce digital content and all of us will need to ensure that information is accessible. In addition to meeting government mandates, it's also the right thing to do."

In addition to the disability accessibility training programs launched by our colleges, the VCCS System Office will provide multiple training opportunities to help our people learn the skill sets to update existing materials and systems and create habits to develop accessible new content going forward.

"There's a tremendous amount of work to do," said Dr. Sheri Prupis, VCCS Director of Teaching & Learning with Technology. Dr. Prupis is directing the system's Digital Accessibility Compliance Initiative.

"It's important to remember that these are new skills that 'regular folks' can learn, and that these new accessibility practices will make us all more effective in advancing our mission to serve Virginians more effectively.

A first round of training sessions has been scheduled to get the accessibility initiative underway.

"These sessions are not mandatory," said Dr. Prupis. "They are offered as resources to support the work of our colleagues system-wide, and to help all of us build a more accessible environment across the VCCS. We encourage people to participate as schedules allow, and we also encourage our people to check with their own college for additional webinars and resources that may be available locally. By taking advantage of both college-level and system-wide offerings, we'll continue to strengthen our skills and confidence in accessibility practices," she added.

"We want to thank our colleagues across the system for the work they are doing to make accessibility part of our culture and practice," added Dr. Doré. "Together, we are building capacity and making a real difference for our students and colleagues."

"When we design for accessibility, we create solutions that work better for everyone-not just those who require accommodations," Doré added.

The VCCS also is working with the consulting firm LearningMate to develop flexible frameworks that colleges and individuals can use to help assess materials and develop priorities for the digital accessibility work that needs to be done going forward.

Accessibility Training Assets include the following:

Recordings of recent sessions:

• introductory basic skills
• Creating accessible emails
• Working with images

The following list of training sessions will be updated over time to reflect new sessions available to VCCS personnel systemwide.

For Faculty

• September 30, 2025 - Noon | Working with Videos
  Register for Working with Videos (Faculty)
• October 23, 2025 - Noon | On-Page Content
  Register for On-Page Content (Faculty)
• November 4, 2025 - 11:00 AM | Accessible PDFs
  Register for Accessible PDFs (Faculty)
• Ongoing: Canvas Accessibility with UDOIT Advantage
  Offered throughout the academic year by NOVA's Canvas & Educational Technology Support Services team.
  Register for a UDOIT session (Faculty)

For Staff

• October 9, 2025 - 11:00 AM | Working with Videos
  Register for Working with Video (Staff)
• October 22, 2025 - 11:00 AM | On-Page Content
  Register for On-Page Content (Staff)
• November 12, 2025 - 10:00 AM | Creating Accessible PDFs
  Register for Accessible PDFs (Staff)

Watch this space for updates.