2.1 Introduction to Accessibility and Universal Design

What is Required by Law?


Accessible design

Accessibility is more about meeting standards set by the government. The standards require meeting the needs of specific populations with varying degrees of abilities. When it comes to serving students with disabilities, which laws are most relevant? 

The American Disability Act requires that businesses, state and local governments, and nonprofit services providers make accommodations for the disabled public to access the same services as able-bodied patrons. Movie theaters, digital media, websites, and ICT (information and communication technology) are required to be accessible to people with disabilities.

Title II of the ADA expanded the reach of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to state and local governments. Combined with Section 504, this ensures nondiscrimination in all government agencies.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and applies to all public colleges and universities, regardless of whether they receive federal funding. 

What Section 504 and the ADA mean for serving students:

These laws require that

  • People with disabilities cannot be denied services due to their disability.
    • E.g. You cannot tell a student that they can't enroll in a particular program or take a class because of their disability. 

  • Students with disabilities must be given appropriate accommodations (assistive technology, extended time, captions, etc.) to ensure they can meet the same objectives as students without disabilities.
    • E.g. You cannot refuse to give extended time on a test or provide documents in an alternative format to a student who has an accommodation request that outlines those needs.

  • People with disabilities should have access to material of the same quality and within the same time frame as people without disabilities. 
    • E.g. If you record your lecture and make it available to the class on a Friday in order to study for an exam on Monday, that video must be captioned and made available within the same time frame for a deaf student - otherwise they do not have the same access to the study materials as other students, which puts them at a disadvantage. Put simply: students with disabilities should not have to wait for accessible materials as it can hold back their progress in class. 

  • Students with disabilities should be able to access material as easily as a student without a disability.
    • E.g. A blind student should be able to independently access a website without the assistance of a sighted person. 

For a great summary and more detailed discussion of how these laws impact higher edu, review “Legal Obligations for Accessibility (Links to an external site.)” by UDL on Campus.

What Section 508 and the ADA mean for serving students

Does your school receive any federal funding? At all? Even a $5,000 grant for your library? If the answer is "yes," then your site also falls under the purview of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 applies to federally funded agencies and their digital services providers. Under the January 2018 Information Communications Technologies (ICT Refresh), Section 508 requires website functionality and content to maintain conformance with WCAG 2.0 AA Success Criteria.


Accessible Resources, SBCTC. “Understanding Accessibility, Relevant Laws & Policies.” SBCTC's Library of Accessibility Resources, SBCTC, 2020, sbctc.instructure.com/courses/1578604. This content is offered under a CC Attribution license.