Higher education accessibility cases: what went wrong, and what it cost

Universities publish more PDFs, videos and online platforms than almost any other kind of organization — and a disabled student can’t simply shop elsewhere. These cases show how accessibility debt builds up, and how expensive it becomes.

UC Berkeley: 20,000 videos taken offline

After a complaint filed with support from the National Association of the Deaf, the DOJ investigated Berkeley’s free online content and found much of it inaccessible to deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind and low-vision people. Berkeley said the cost of captioning and remediation was too high and instead pulled the content from public view.

The lesson: deferring accessibility doesn’t make the cost disappear. It turns a manageable, ongoing expense into a crisis where the cheapest option is to delete your work.

Harvard and MIT: captioning lawsuits

The National Association of the Deaf sued Harvard and MIT over thousands of uncaptioned or inaccurately auto-captioned lectures, courses and podcasts published online. Both universities argued the content was free and public; the courts allowed the cases to proceed. After nearly five years of litigation, both agreed to caption their online content.

The lesson: automatic captions are not enough. Captions must be accurate.

Penn State: inaccessible technology across campus

In 2010 the National Federation of the Blind filed a complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Penn State’s websites, course management system, library catalog and classroom technology were inaccessible to blind students and faculty. In 2011 Penn State agreed to a sweeping plan: accessibility standards for all electronic and information technology, an accessibility officer, procurement rules, and training.

The lesson: accessibility is an institution-wide procurement and governance problem, not a web team problem.

Louisiana Tech: one textbook platform

In 2013 Louisiana Tech University settled with the DOJ after a blind student couldn’t use an online learning product from a textbook publisher that was required for his course. The university agreed to adopt accessible technology, train staff, and pay the student $23,543 in damages.

The lesson: you are responsible for the third-party platforms you require students to use.

Miami University: a student sues, the DOJ joins

A blind student, Aaron Dinin, sued Miami University in Ohio in 2014 over inaccessible course materials, learning platforms and websites. The DOJ intervened, and in 2016 a consent decree required the university to make its web content and course technologies conform to WCAG 2.0 AA, conduct audits, hire accessibility staff and train faculty.

The lesson: when the DOJ joins a private lawsuit, the remedy becomes a multi-year, court-supervised program.

What every campus should take from this

1. Course PDFs are the biggest backlog. Scanned readings are images; a screen reader hears nothing. See scanned PDFs and OCR.
2. Video needs accurate captions — not unedited automatic captions.
3. Procurement is policy. Require an ACR and test before you buy.
4. Train faculty to create accessible materials in Word, PowerPoint and the LMS.
5. Use the time before April 2027. The Title II rule now sets a clear deadline for most public institutions.