April Accessibility Workshops Offered to Staff as Title II Compliance Date Nears

Do you create flyers or infographics for students? Do you use WordPress? Do you give presentations and later share the slides? Do you send emails to the campus community? 

If so, and you're employed by the U of A, you're affected by the updated digital accessibility requirements mandated by U.S. Department of Justice. 

IT Services launched the Accessibility HOG Team in summer 2025, and its members have been working diligently to inform faculty and staff about the importance of adhering to these regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

With one month until the compliance date, the Accessibility HOG Team is sponsoring a series of virtual workshops designed to further educate staff on different facets of digital accessibility. 

The workshops below are offered to staff throughout the month of April. Faculty are invited to attend as well. Additional workshops in May will be announced at a later date. 

• April 1, 3-4 p.m.: "Lessons Learned from PDF Remediation" Accessibility Workshop 

• April 6, 11 a.m. to noon: "VPAT Reviews: What Exactly Goes Into This?" Accessibility Workshop 

• April 8, 10-11 a.m.: "Forms for Everyone: Meeting the WCAG 2.2 Standards" Accessibility Workshop 

• April 13, 11 a.m. to noon: "Beyond the Checkbox: Deep Dive into WCAG 2.2 in MS Office" Accessibility Workshop 

• April 15, 10-11 a.m.: "Lessons Learned from PDF Remediation - WCAG 2.2" Accessibility Workshop 

• April 22, 11 a.m. to noon: "Designing for All Minds: A WordPress Accessibility Guide" Workshop 

• April 27, 9-10 a.m.: "Accessible Content: A Creator's Guide to Inclusion" Workshop 

In addition to joining the virtual workshops, there are many actions faculty and staff can take to improve digital accessibility ahead of the April 24, 2026, compliance date, including:     

• Ensuring documents are accessible 

• Evaluating the accessibility of third-party software  

• Using high contrast colors   

• Ensuring all images have alt text 

• Using semantic formatting (formatting that has meaning) rather than formatting that is purely visual. For example, in the Blackboard text editor, use the "Header" text style to distinguish headings from paragraph text, rather than just changing the font size. 

Learn more about how to address these issues and more on the university's accessibility website and join the Digital Inclusivity and Accessibility Community of Practice to ask questions and get support.