ADA Title II Digital Accessibility Rule
The new Americans with Disabilities Act Title II digital accessibility rule requires compliance with specific digital accessibility standards on or before April 2027. This rule applies to all web content, apps, social media, and electronic documents, including academic content in Blackboard.
Overview
The University of Mississippi has been committed in both policy and practice to providing an accessible digital environment for over a decade, and there is now an important update to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act that requires compliance with specific digital accessibility standards on or before April 2027. This new federal rule requires that all digital content, whether posted on a website, on social media, in Blackboard, or otherwise shared widely, be accessible.
Note: While the Title II deadline has been extended to April 26th 2027, the university's commitment to accessibility has not changed. Continue preparing as planned, ensuring all efforts consistently support accessibility across the university.
Our Responsibility
As a public state university, we provide a great deal of information and services online that may contain barriers to those with disabilities when not created accessibly.
- With this new rule, Title II of the ADA now explicitly covers web content, apps, social media, and electronic documents.
- This includes text, images, audio content, video content, animations, presentations, and controls.
Academic content in Blackboard is also covered by this rule and must be accessible. The university must also make sure that any contracted third-party systems that provide digital content or services are accessible.
There are some exceptions to the rule that apply to archived content, but content must meet certain criteria to be covered by the exception. It is also important to note that any content that does meet an exception standard must be made accessible in the event of an accommodation request.