Colleges improve website accessibility as they are defendants in lawsuits

Several New York universities and colleges are improving the accessibility of their websites to individuals with disabilities while facing lawsuits alleging their websites do not comply with standards from the Americans With Disabilities Act.

About 50 institutions are being sued, and 11 of them are from upstate New York, including Cornell University, Ithaca College, Rochester Institute of Technology and Nazareth College.

The lawsuits state that the plaintiff, Jason Camacho, a legally blind man who requires screen-reading software to read website content, did not find the websites accessible and independently usable by people who are blind or visually impaired.

Camacho is suing the New York institutions on the grounds that the websites violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, New York state's human and civil-rights laws, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the New York City Human Rights Law. 

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In November, Camacho attended a National Association of College Admissions Counseling college fair at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan to obtain information from college exhibitors, the suit stated. After attending the fair, Camacho attempted to access college websites but encountered multiple barriers, including lack of code that screen-reading software could speak as alternative text where a sighted user sees pictures. Some of the other issues he came across included empty links containing no text, which brought about confusion as he tried to navigate the websites.

In addition to the four colleges from the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier, the other New York institutions that are being sued are New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, Molloy College, Manhattanville College, Five Towns College and College of St. Rose. Other notable schools that are defendants in the lawsuits are Vanderbilt University, the California Institute of the Arts, Oberlin College, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Loyola University New Orleans.

How IC is addressing accessibility

According to an email from David Cameron, senior web strategist for the Ithaca College Division of College Communications, IC knew of web accessibility concerns and started a web overhaul effort in 2016, before the lawsuits were filed.

"We really did start thinking about accessibility and meeting those standards back in 2007-2008 with the old website, which is also when the original (World Wide Web Consortium) standards came about," Cameron said. "Accessibility is usability; they’re not independent. A truly effective user experience means that anyone can visit our website with whatever device or screen size they choose and still access the same content, easily find what they’re looking for, and get the same overall impact from the stories and information we share."

The college launched an upgraded website in May 2018.

"All the content built in that new system was designed to meet or exceed (W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 AA standards for ADA accessibility," Cameron said.

This includes ensuring code markup is screen-reader compatible and user-friendly. 

"Our efforts since 2018 have been focused on working with our content owners to address the more than 20,000 web pages created in the old system over the past decade, and either removing them or migrating and rebuilding them on the new platform," Cameron said. 

Ithaca College expects to complete the legacy migration by next spring.

"However, keeping a digital platform usable and accessible is really never something that you can say is complete — standards continue to evolve, technology and user expectations change, and so web accessibility is just another part of work we will always need to maintain, just like the web platform itself," Cameron said. "(Since 2018), W3C has created WCAG 2.1, and we plan to create a new web accessibility policy that will align with those standards."

Because the college has been focusing on migrating its content from the older, less-accessible platform to the modern platform, it has not had the opportunity to do accessibility testing with users who use screen readers or special web browsing tools, Cameron said. However, the institution has long-term plans to work with its accessibility experts on campus and users who can provide feedback on how the site performs for their needs.

The college has always used alt-tagging on images, but is now taking additional steps to ensure alternative text is used only where it is really needed, such as where an image is content on a page and not just a decoration or teaser.

"We’re also training our content creators to ensure that ALT text actually describes the image effectively," Cameron said. "For more complicated types of content, such as forms or PDFs, we’re working with our student accessibility office to ensure we have tools and standards in place for that content, though we expect it will take some time to effectively update any existing content from the older system."

In addition, the college is implementing a standard so that any embedded video or audio recordings must have closed captioning or transcription files for the deaf and hard of hearing.

"No user, regardless of the device they use, should have an experience that makes content inaccessible," Cameron said. "That is our goal, our challenge, and one that all of my colleagues at other higher ed institutions take very seriously. The upside is that there are a lot of passionate people in this community sharing ideas and working to help make everyone’s web experiences better today and into the future."

Cornell responds

The Ithaca Journal also reached out to Cornell University and Rochester Institute of Technology for comment.

"Cornell University is committed to providing an environment in which all people have an equal opportunity to participate in the university’s programs, activities and services," said Shannon Osborn, assistant director of Cornell IT. "We have been focused on a university-wide web accessibility initiative for the past several years and recently finalized a new policy to govern these activities.

"Web accessibility testing involves a mix of manual testing and tools. Currently, the university uses SiteImprove, a robust online accessibility testing tool to scan sites for accessibility. The university offers trainings and resources to faculty and staff to ensure that they are developing accessible websites, applications and content. To date, more than 500 people have participated in web accessibility workshops and trainings."

"Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone available to speak to you on this subject," RIT spokeswoman Ellen Rosen wrote in an email.

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