Creating accessible digital content is easier than you might think, and new training options will help you build your skills.
Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Making small changes to your daily habits will help the University of Iowa ensure that all individuals can easily access its digital materials, as required by federal law. 

  • Brief videos on the campus accessibility website will teach you to use accessibility checkers in Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat in minutes.
  • The updated Accessibility 101 course is now available through Employee Self Service. You can complete short modules at your own pace to learn what digital accessibility means, why it is crucial, and the legal and policy frameworks. You’ll learn practical steps to make your digital materials more accessible and where to find support for accessibility efforts.
  • An article outlines 11 key habits you can adopt to improve the experience for people with and without disabilities—core practices like using headings to organize documents and web pages, including text alternatives for images and graphics, providing captions and transcription for media, using descriptive link text, ensuring appropriate color contrast, and more.
  • A calendar on the campus accessibility site lists opportunities for instructor-led trainings, including sessions focused on course-accessibility tools like Anthology Ally and TidyUp.  

The University of Iowa’s Accessible Iowa initiative aims to ensure that its digital content follows the U.S. Department of Justice’s updated rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act by April 2026, and to ensure that the campus is prepared with skills to sustain digital accessibility into the future 

Accessibility means individuals with disabilities can independently acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services within the same timeframe as individuals without disabilities, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The new law, aiming to provide equitable digital experiences for everyone, applies to all university websites, mobile applications, operational systems, and any digital materials shared with students, faculty, and staff, including academic content. 

Additional information and resources can be found on the Accessible Iowa website.