Digital Accessibility FAQs for VCU Faculty
This FAQ addresses common questions about digital accessibility expectations, processes, and available support. It’s designed to help faculty and staff navigate requirements and find practical guidance quickly. Please review these FAQs regularly as information will update as guidance and best practices evolve after April 24, 2026.
Not every older file is treated the same way under the rule, but active course content is in-scope. If students participate in your course, it needs to be accessible.
Along with this FAQ, faculty should also consult VCU’s Digital Accessibility website for compliance guidelines, best practices, and tools to support faculty in remediating digital course content.
In addition, Academic Affairs, Faculty Affairs, and the Office of the CIO are onboarding a team of part-time Digital Accessibility Specialists to support schools, departments, and faculty in addressing digital accessibility issues in instructional materials. In collaboration with Academic Affairs, Faculty Affairs, and the CIO, college and school deans have identified departments with distinctive and extensive digital accessibility remediation needs.
Individual faculty can attend office hours for support from the Digital Accessibility Specialists beginning the week of April 6 during LEDstudio's Open Office Hours, every Tuesday and Wednesday, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM. Faculty can also attend CTLE OOH to meet with CTLE and Digital Accessibility Specialists; Join via Zoom (Tuesdays 2:00-4:00pm & Thursdays 10:00am-12:00pm).
In order to best support you, try to make sure all instructional materials (all materials distributed to students as part of a course) are distributed through Canvas. The university's main tools for remediating digital accessibility issues--TidyUp and UDOIT--are integrated into Canvas and greatly expedite the process.
Anything students currently need for the course should be treated as active course content and made accessible. A best practice is to remove unused files, clearly archive materials that are no longer part of instruction, and prioritize remediation of anything students must read, watch, download, or complete. Faculty can use TidyUP to clean up a Canvas course and remove files in bulk.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria (This varies by file type and content, but commonly includes):
- SC 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- SC 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence
- SC 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- SC 2.4.6 Headings and Labels
More Information:
CidiLabs: Tidy Up Improves Accessibility
Yes. Clear headings help students understand the structure of a page, and descriptive link text helps them know where a link will go. Phrases like “click here” or “read more” are harder to use with screen readers and can make navigation more confusing for everyone. Good headings and links are small changes that improve usability for all students, not just students using assistive technology.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
More information:
- WebAim Links and Hypertext
- WebAim Headings
Yes. If students need the content to navigate the course, understand expectations, or participate in learning activities, it should be accessible. That includes Canvas pages, announcements, assignment instructions, discussion prompts, and module overviews. Use real headings, descriptive links, lists, and alt text for images, and do not rely on color alone to communicate meaning. Faculty can use UDOIT to assist with this process.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
- SC 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- SC 1.4.1 Use of Color
- SC 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
- SC 2.4.6 Headings and Labels
More information:
- LED studio workshop (5 Feb 2026) Fix it with UDOIT: Making Courses Accessible, One Issue at a Time
If students must use a third-party tool to participate in the course, complete assignments, or access instruction, accessibility still matters. The Title II rule applies to web content and apps a public entity provides or makes available, including through contractual, licensing, or similar arrangements. In practice, faculty should not assume a tool is “someone else’s problem” just because a vendor owns it. Raise concerns early and work with campus partners to identify accessible options or alternatives.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria (This varies by tool, but common issues include):
If a resource is optional background material, the risk is different than if it is required for course participation. But if you assign an outside reading, website, or video as part of the course, students still need an accessible way to use that material. Linking out to another site does not remove the need to ensure equal access for students in your course. When possible, choose accessible resources up front or provide an accessible alternative.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
No. AI tools and automated checkers can help identify likely problems or draft items like alt text and captions, but they do not replace human review. Faculty still need to check whether captions are accurate, whether alt text matches the instructional purpose, and whether the material is usable by students in context.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
More information:
- LED studio workshop (4 April 2025) Building Accessible Courses: Practical Strategies for Faculty
Yes, but only if they are accessible for course use. If captions are inaccurate, incomplete, or missing, the video cannot not be assigned without fixing the problem or providing an accessible alternative.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
- SC 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
- SC 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)
- SC 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded) when visual information is necessary to understand the content
Not by themselves. Machine captions often need editing. Accuracy matters, especially for names, formulas, technical vocabulary, and specialized terminology.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
More information:
- LEDstudio blog post by Alora Grogan, “Making Video Accessible from Start to Finish.”
- W3C Making Audio and Video Media Accessible
If synchronous online meetings are part of the course, accessibility still applies. Use live captions when available for live sessions, and make sure recordings students will watch have accurate captions before sharing them. If important visual information is presented on screen, faculty should also describe that information verbally or provide it in an accessible companion format.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
More information:
- LED studio Quick Start Guide: Accessibility in Digital Learning
The best option is usually:
- Build the information contained in the presentation into a Canvas page/HTML when possible
- Accessible PowerPoint file if students need the slides
- Tagged PDF only if exported from an accessible source file
Avoid relying only on handout-style PDFs with multiple slides per page unless you have checked reading order and usability.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
- SC 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- SC 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence
- SC 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- SC 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
More Information:
If digital materials are used live in class, accessibility still matters. Even if content is not posted later, instruction must still be accessible to students. That means using practices like describing important visuals, captioning videos shown in class, and providing accessible copies when needed.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
In general:
- Best: Canvas pages/HTML
- Good: Accessible Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files
- Use with care: Tagged PDFs
- Least accessible: Scanned/image-only PDFs
More information:
- LED studio workshop (4 March 26): Teaching for Everyone: Accessibility and UDL Essentials
- LED studio workshop (16 July 25): Small Changes, Big Impact: Accessibility Basics for Educators
The law does not specifically single out student work in one sentence. But if student work is shared digitally with classmates, used for discussion, peer review, or grading, the university still has to ensure students with disabilities have equal access to course participation and educational benefits under Title II and Section 504. For that reason, faculty should build basic accessibility expectations into assignments, templates, and grading criteria when student work will be used by others in the course.
For simple images, use brief alt text. For complex visuals, provide a short alt text plus a longer explanation nearby. AI tools may help draft descriptions, but faculty should review them for accuracy and instructional relevance. If students are supposed to interpret the images as part of a quiz or exam, the alternative text should give access to the content without giving the answer.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
More Information:
- LEDstudio blog post by Patty Hendricks, Countdown to April 24th: AI as Your Accessibility Partner
- W3C Images Tutorial
- WebAim Alternative Text
Describe graphs and charts in a way that supports the learning goal. If students are supposed to interpret the data as part of a quiz or exam, the alternative text should give access to the content without giving the answer.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
- SC 1.1.1 Non-text Content
- SC 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- SC 1.4.1 Use of Color
- SC 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
More Information:
- W3C Complex Images
If spreadsheets, charts, or graph outputs are shared digitally in class, they should be accessible enough for others to use. Use clear headers, meaningful sheet names, accessible tables, and avoid relying on color alone.
Relevant WCAG 2.1 criteria:
- SC 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
- SC 1.4.1 Use of Color
- SC 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (where labels are used)
More information:
- Microsoft Accessibility best practices with Excel spreadsheets
- Microsoft Accessibility tools for Excel
- Section 508.gov Accessible Spreadsheets
Use tables only to present data—not for page layout or decoration. Include a brief caption that explains the table’s purpose. Use your application’s built-in accessibility checker or tool to tag your table and identify the row or column headers. Keep tables as simple as possible, avoiding merged cells, split cells, or embedded tables.
More information: