Resources are Available to Ensure Course Materials are Accessible

Arash Mafi, Chief Academic Officer / Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor and Professor of Physics & Astronomy
Thursday, April 2, 2026, 2 p.m.
KU Lawrence & Edwards Faculty, Staff & Affiliates; KU Graduate Teaching Assistants

Dear Colleagues,

As was recently shared, updated federal regulations on Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act goes into effect in late April and will impact how many of us present digital course content beginning this summer and fall. These regulations affect the materials featured on our websites, digital documents, multimedia, and third-party tools, including Canvas, and the learning materials made available to our students.

To help support faculty in meeting this change, KU has made a number of tools and resources available:

  • Panorama in Canvas, announced in February 2025, supports faculty in reviewing course content and fixing accessibility errors. Access videos and step-by-step guides are available at Panorama for Online Courses. 
  • The “Digital Accessibility Essentials” Canvas resource hub, created by the Center for Online and Distance Learning in October 2025, is available to all KU faculty. This resource offers on-demand modules with how-to information to create various types of accessible documents, remediate already created documents to resolve accessibility issues, and strengthen the accessibility features of a course.
  • Lunch-and-learns were held this spring on best practices in remediating Canvas-hosted documents. They were prepared by CODL and members of the KU IT Academic Technology team and provided through the Center for Teaching Excellence.
  • A detailed accessibility webpage, developed by CODL, connects instructors to valuable resources created by the Student Access Center, KU IT, KU Libraries and CTE. The page also includes guidelines and key questions to ask when working with a third-party publisher to provide course content.

In preparation for summer and fall courses, the offices of Academic Success, Faculty Affairs, CODL, and the KU IT Academic Technology team have created a number of additional opportunities to give faculty tools and support for remediating course materials, including Word documents, PDFs, videos and more. The activities include:

  • The Digital Accessibility Team is hosting open office hours through the remainder of the spring semester, virtually and in Anschutz Library 3 North. Staff will work with instructors one-on-one to use Panorama Yuja for document remediation in Canvas and other resources to prepare documents to upload. The schedule includes:
    • Tuesdays 10 a.m. - noon, virtually,
    • Wednesdays 11a.m. - 1 p.m., Anschutz 3 North
    • Thursdays 1 - 3 p.m., Anschutz 3 North
    • One-on-one support is also available through submitting a Help Desk ticket.
  • A new digital accessibility page features support for creating digital content, provides an FAQ, links to online training and resources, and Canvas course checklists to support the creation of accessible materials for Canvas.
  • On May 20, the Office of Faculty Affairs will host an “Accessibility in the Student Experience” Academy during Faculty Development Academies Week, featuring CODL and the Academic Technology team. Designed specifically for faculty who are preparing to deliver summer and fall courses, attendees will learn how to use Panorama Yuja in Canvas for remediating uploaded documents, Microsoft accessibility features, and will receive personalized deskside coaching.
  • Throughout the summer, the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Digital Accessibility Team will offer six “Faculty How to at KU” sessions. These are one-hour online sessions, delivered in lunch-and-learn style, and will cover a range of topics, from an introduction to accessibility to providing accessibility in Microsoft products, Adobe, LaTeX, and other unique software programs.

Title II also applies to theses and dissertations published in KU ScholarWorks. Graduating students completing a doctoral dissertation or thesis-option master's degree must now submit proof their thesis or dissertation meets accessibility standards. The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs recently sent additional information on these new formatting and accessibility requirements.

Title II Regulations Help Everyone

The benefits of accessibility support the individual learning experience and also serve as the foundation for a more dynamic learning environment for all students. Electronic readers can help students take in content while commuting, doing laundry or completing other tasks of daily life. Accurate video captioning helps ensure students, including those who speak English as a second language, understand the discussion and lessons. Accessible content is perfectly positioned for modern life and the ways people acquire knowledge today. It creates more opportunities for students to fully engage with course materials and with the course content more broadly.

Accessibility ensures all KU students have access to the best possible circumstances for learning and content comprehension. I encourage you to attend one of the programs listed above, explore the online resources, attend an office-hours session hosted by the Digital Accessibility Team, or reach out to offices listed here with your questions.

Faculty Affairs, Academic Success, CODL, IT Ed Tech, IT Accessibility, Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, CTE and others at KU continue to develop and fine tune additional programming and resources to help you create accessible course materials. Thank you for working together to create an accessible KU.

Sincerely,

Arash

Arash Mafi, Ph.D.

Chief Academic Officer/Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor

Professor, Physics & Astronomy

University of Kansas