Meeting ADA Title II Web Requirements
As part of the University’s ongoing commitment to provide access to all users and to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II, we are reinforcing our institutional approach to digital accessibility.
ADA Title II requires that all public entities—including universities—ensure that their programs, services, and activities delivered via websites and applications are accessible to individuals with disabilities. This includes web pages, online applications, digital documents, multimedia, and any technology used to deliver University services.
Our Action Plan
To support this requirement, all colleges, divisions, and units must take the following actions:
1. Complete a digital resource inventory
Every unit must develop and maintain an inventory of all public-facing and internal-facing web and application resources under its control.
This inventory should include (but is not limited to):
- Websites and microsites
- Web applications and portals
- Digital forms and PDFs
- Instructional or student facing digital tools
- Hosted/vendor platforms connected to University services
This inventory will serve as the foundation for accessibility evaluation, remediation planning, and compliance tracking. Prioritize any remediation efforts according to the University Web Accessibility Plan.
See information about Archived Web Content to better prepare for compliance.
2. Ensure your website is active in Siteimprove
To support consistent accessibility monitoring across the University, all official sites must be:
- Added to the Siteimprove platform
- Actively monitored for accessibility issues
- Reviewed regularly by site owners or designated staff
Siteimprove provides automated accessibility scanning, broken link checks, quality assurance tools, and analytics to help teams meet ADA Title II requirements and institutional standards.
If your website is not currently in Siteimprove, please contact web@tamu.edu to begin the onboarding process.
3. Conduct manual testing
Automated tools alone cannot detect all accessibility barriers. To ensure conformance with accessibility requirements that align with WCAG 2.1 AA, each unit must perform manual accessibility testing on its websites and applications.
Manual testing should include:
- Keyboard-only navigation checks
- Screen reader testing (e.g., NVDA, VoiceOver)
- Verification of headings, lists, tables, and semantic structure
- Color contrast evaluation
- Form label and error messaging review
- Testing of interactive components (menus, accordions, modal dialogs, etc.)
These manual evaluations ensure that accessibility barriers not captured by automated tools are identified and remediated, improving usability and compliance.
4. Report progress to leadership
Accessibility progress is tracked centrally and will be included in regular reports to University leadership. These reports will include:
- Accessibility scores from Siteimprove
- Identified high risk barriers
- Remediation progress across units
- Trends in compliance with ADA Title II expectations
Units are contacted when attention or remediation is required. Consistent and timely improvement is essential to ensure that all University digital resources remain accessible and compliant.
5. Maintain compliance levels
Maintaining digital accessibility under ADA Title II is an ongoing process, not a one‑time task. We must continue to build knowledge, adopt new tools and practices, and apply evolving accessibility standards as technologies and instructional methods change. By committing to continuous learning, thoughtful updates, and proactive planning, today’s efforts help ensure equal access, reduce barriers, and create an accessible digital environment moving forward.
Your Role
As stewards of the University’s digital presence, your participation in this effort is critical. Ensuring accessibility is not only a legal requirement under ADA Title II—it is an institutional responsibility to our students, employees, and community members.
If you need assistance with remediation strategies, accessibility best practices, or inventory development, please reach out to the IT Accessibility team.
Did you know?
- In the United States, about 55 million people have a disability (src: 2010 U.S. Census).
- About 1 in 5 Americans have some kind of disability (src: 2010 U.S. Census).
- The percentage of people affected by disabilities is growing as our population ages.
- Two popular, free screen readers are VoiceOver (Mac OS and iOS) and NVDA (Win).
- Good accessibility practices can improve the search ranking of your website.
- Form fields without labels can cause problems for some assistive technology users.
- Low color contrast makes content difficult to see, especially for users with low vision.
- Documents linked on a website need to be accessible too (e.g., PDF and Word files).
- Audio content, like podcasts, need transcripts for deaf or hard of hearing users.
- Online videos should be captioned for deaf or hard of hearing users.
- Using HTML tags correctly is very important for accessibility.
- Descriptive link text helps make a website more accessible. Avoid using "Click here" or "Read more."
- A "screen reader" is an application that reads content aloud to a user.
- There is no "alt tag" in HTML. "Alt" is an attribute used with the img tag.
- HTML uses the alt attribute to provide a text description of an image.
- Alt text should describe an image, if the purpose of the image is to convey information.
- If an image is a link, the alt text for the image should explain where the link goes.
- If an image is only being used for decoration, the alt text should be null (i.e., alt="").
- If a table has headers, using header tags (<th>) will make the table more accessible.
- An accessible website is one that can be navigated and understood by everyone.