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We’re glad you’re here!

This webinar will be recorded. We’ll send the link to the recording along with the slides afterwards.

Let us know in the chat:

  • Where are you from?
  • What’s your organization/institution?
  • What is the hardest part for your organization to prepare for the new ADA Title 2 rule?

Get Ready for ADA Title 2

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Presenters/Co-hosts

Mark Pope

Web Accessibility Specialist & Director of Customer Support

Jay Pope

Web Accessibility Specialist & CEO

Whitney Lewis

Web Accessibility Content Creator

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Housekeeping items

  • Live Captioning is available.
  • This webinar is recorded.
  • We’ll send an email afterward with:
    • A link to the recording
    • A link to the slides
    • Resources
    • A feedback survey
    • A toolkit to help you start implementing what we cover.

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We’ll cover:

  • What is the new ADA Title 2 rule?
  • Digital content types
  • Risk management
  • Three phases to break the work into
    • Identify current state
    • Putting processes in place
    • Fix existing issues
  • Examples
  • Toolkit overview

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What is ADA Title 2?

  • ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
  • Title 2 is the part of the law that applies to public entities like government agencies and universities.
  • Title 2 requires public entities to have equal access to their programs, services, and activities for people with disabilities.

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What is the new ruling?

In 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) officially ruled that public entities are required to have accessible online content. It is a legal requirement.

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What are the deadlines?

The compliance deadlines depend on the size of the entity:

  • Large entities (50,000+ people) must comply by April 24, 2026
  • Smaller entities must comply by April 26, 2027

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What is the requirement?

Public entities must comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which is the most common web accessibility standard.

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What digital content falls under ADA Title 2?

Let us know in the chat:

  • What digital content types must be accessible?
  • What digital content types are you responsible for or most concerned about?

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Any digital content your organization posts must be accessible.

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This is…

a lot.

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Manage risk with�opportunities that make the biggest impact.

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I know where to start.

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Break the work up by content type.

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Break each content type into parts.

1. Identify what you have and your environment.

2. Put processes for prevention in place.

3. Test and fix existing content.

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Find those easy wins, opportunities, ways to simplify.

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These opportunities get people on board, making it easier to scale.

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Identify

what you have

and your environment

  1. What content exists? How much is there?
  2. Who makes the content?
  3. What policies currently exist (if any)?
  4. What processes currently exist (if any)?
  5. What monetary, technological, time, and people resources currently exist?
  6. Is anything already working well that we could build on?

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Put processes for prevention in place

  • Get leadership buy-in for policies (if needed)
  • Define the ideal processes for creating and maintaining accessible content
  • Start the training plan for those who are responsible for creating and maintaining content
  • Start regular and consistent automated and manual testing

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Communicating with leadership

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Talking points

  • About ADA Title 2
  • Why it matters to the organization
  • Your organization’s current state
  • Your plan
  • Your needs

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Why it matters to the organization

  • Right thing to do.
  • Risk management.
  • Business opportunities.

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Tips when talking to leadership.

  • Lean into their motivations.
  • Go with a clear plan and gap list of what is needed to accomplish it.
  • Get leadership to say yes or no.

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Accessibility training

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Everyone has a role in web accessibility.

There are two areas people need to begin learning about:

  • Accessibility knowledge.
  • Tools to test for accessibility or create accessible content.

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3rd party or vendor tools

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Anything you use or purchase to use in your digital content.

  • Calendar widgets
  • Google maps
  • YouTube
  • Content management systems
  • Learning management system
  • Form building tools
  • Email applications

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Most the time, they aren’t accessible.

  • Accept the risk
  • Customize the software
  • Work with the vendor

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Test and fix existing content

In this phase, you’ll:

  • Determine who is responsible for the work.
  • Set goals, starting with easy wins and opportunities.
  • Create a plan for escalating potential blocks and barriers.

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Example 1: New accessible video process

  • Focused on captions only because there were tools that supported it, and it was easy to get people on board.
  • Inventoried and tested videos to see which ones had a human caption track.
  • Worked with leadership to establish a policy that said all new videos starting on a certain date had to have captions or they would be taken down.

Pope Tech helps:

  • Inventory linked and embedded videos.
  • Test videos for human captioning tracks.

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Example 1: New accessible video process (continued)

  • Communicated new flow and requirement.
  • Created a form for departments to request captioning for videos.
  • Created training materials departments could use to caption their own videos.
  • On the back-end, partnered with a 3rd partner vendor to caption videos.
  • Run regular automated testing on all videos for human caption track.

Pope Tech helps with:

  • Video training.
  • Scheduled automated testing on all videos.
  • Scheduled reporting to stakeholders.

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Example 2: Accessible LMS content strategy

  • Started with Canvas content.
  • Branded the project with visuals to make it feel official.
  • Educated everyone on seven main skills: Headings, alternative text, links, color contrast, tables, lists, and videos and audio.
  • Developed accessible Canvas templates.

Pope Tech helps:

  • Inventory all Canvas content.
  • Test for issues in content.
  • Train those seven main skills.

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Example 2: Accessible LMS content strategy (continued)

  • Instructors self-identified as willing for accessible course challenge.
  • Identified one college to make an accessibility model.
  • Sent emails to main offenders with help content on how to fix issues.

Pope Tech helps with:

  • Accessibility Guide that helps any Canvas user find and fix issues while editing course content.
  • Custom reporting views and scheduled report emails
  • Admin dashboards.

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Example 3: PDF purge

  • Reduced scope by archiving outdated PDFs and identifying PDFs that should be web pages.
  • Trained people in content management system instead of PDF accessibility.

Pope Tech helps with:

  • Identifying PDFs linked to.
  • PDF testing (releasing soon).
  • Document training.

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Toolkit overview

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What we learned today

  • The new ADA Title 2 rule means all public entities must have accessible digital content.�
  • We can break this work up by content type and into phases.�
  • Always be on the lookout for easy wins, ways to simplify, or opportunities.

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What we learned today

Documents

Web HTML

Learning Management Systems

Video

Put processes for prevention in place

Test and fix existing issues

Identify what you have and current state

Parts of the work:

Content Types:

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From:

Make all digital content your organization posts accessible.

To:

Based off opportunities in your org, pick one content type and begin going through the phases and tasks to get started.

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What’s next?

  • Start thinking about the content you’ll start with, any opportunities unique to your organization, and use the toolkit to plan your first steps!

  • We will send you an email with a link to the recording and slides. It will also include a link to the toolkit.

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We’d love your feedback!

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Let us know in the chat:

Where will you start? What opportunities does your organization have?

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Thank you for coming!