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Compliance context

Your course materials are a compliance gap — most institutions don't see it until it's late

Every term, faculty publish thousands of slides, handouts, and lecture PDFs. Almost none carry proper image alt text. That is not a theoretical risk: federal frameworks and court practice already point at one technical bar — WCAG 2.1 Level AA — and active teaching content is in scope.

53.1%

of the top million websites still have at least one image missing alt text — and absolute volume of gaps is growing as content outpaces remediation.

3,117

ADA web accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court in 2025 alone — a 27% jump year over year, now more than a third of all ADA Title III cases.

Active use

Archived files may sit out of scope. Materials actively used to teach this semester — in the LMS, in lecture — are not exempt because they are “old PDFs.”

The federal picture

Three frameworks. One technical standard.

Whichever statute applies to your campus, the practical target for digital content is the same: WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the standard referenced in DOJ settlements, Section 504 technical rules, and Title III litigation. SlideAlt generates toward that bar so instructional teams are not guessing what “good enough” means.

FrameworkWho it applies to
ADA Title IIPublic / state institutions (including public colleges & universities)

WCAG 2.1 AA — codified technical standard for web and app content

ADA Title IIIPrivate colleges & universities as places of public accommodation

WCAG 2.1 AA — de facto benchmark in courts and settlements

Section 504Institutions receiving covered federal financial assistance (e.g. HHS-funded programs)

WCAG 2.1 AA — codified technical standard in applicable rules

Public institutions

ADA Title II & public systems

  • State & local entities — public colleges, universities, and agencies must provide equal access to programs and communications, including web and digital course materials.
  • WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical rule — Title II web and mobile accessibility rules codify WCAG 2.1 AA as the measurable bar, not a vague “best effort.”
  • LMS content counts — decks and PDFs students must use to learn are part of how the program is delivered, not a side channel you can ignore.
  • Procurement & vendors — contracts increasingly require accessible deliverables; gaps in slides and PDFs show up in audits and student accommodation requests.

Private institutions

ADA Title III & private campuses

  • Places of public accommodation — private colleges and universities are directly in Title III’s frame. There is no “funding test” to pass and no automatic grace period once non-compliant material is live for students.
  • Litigation reality — web accessibility claims are a large and growing share of Title III federal filings; plaintiff firms already know how to find missing alternatives.
  • Same technical target — courts and settlements treat WCAG 2.1 AA as the practical benchmark even when the statute does not spell out every pixel.
  • Active vs archived — an old PDF sitting unused is a different risk posture than the same file assigned in this week’s module. Active teaching material is what creates exposure.

Why alt text — and why manual remediation fails

Informative images — charts, diagrams, clinical photos, UI screenshots — need a text equivalent so screen-reader users get the same meaning as sighted readers. Decorative images can be marked as such; everything that teaches cannot be left blank.

A single technical or clinical course can contain hundreds of figures per term. Instructional designers cannot hand-write every description at that scale, and generic caption tools built for product photos will invent confident nonsense on a histology slide or statistical figure. Faculty should not be pulled off teaching to close a compliance backlog one image at a time.

Section 504

Federal financial assistance brings its own duty

Institutions in programs covered by Section 504 — including many health and education contexts that receive federal assistance — face accessibility obligations that again point at WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical standard. Title II, Title III, and Section 504 are different doors into the same room: accessible digital materials, including meaningful image alternatives in the formats faculty actually use — PPTX, DOCX, and PDF.

Meet the standard without stalling the semester

SlideAlt helps you generate WCAG-oriented alt text for slide decks and documents — upload, generate, download — so accessibility staff review instead of drafting from zero. See why SlideAlt for the product workflow.

Get startedWhy SlideAlt

SlideAlt is not a law firm and this page is not legal advice. We help teams work toward a technical accessibility standard (WCAG 2.1 AA). Confirm your institution’s specific regulatory posture — Title II, Title III, Section 504, state rules, or contract terms — with compliance counsel. Statistics and framework summaries reflect research compiled for SlideAlt marketing; verify current figures before citing externally.