Education Policy, Business and Technology

Community colleges question whether online courses meet accessibility requirements

Inside Higher Ed: Confidence in the accessibility of online courses at community colleges has fallen dramatically in the last decade, a survey from the Instructional Technology Council reveals.

The annual survey on the impact of online learning at community colleges, published earlier this month, shows what the report calls a “remarkable decline” in certainty among institutions that the online courses they offer are fully accessible to students with disabilities.

In 2008, 73 percent of community colleges said their online courses were “completely” or “mostly" compliant with Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. In 2017, this figure fell to 33 percent, following years of decline.

Read article