{"id":9381,"date":"2025-12-01T09:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/?p=9381"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:23:07","slug":"title-ii-digital-accessibility-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/blog\/2025\/12\/01\/title-ii-digital-accessibility-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Title II Digital Accessibility Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{display:flex;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;align-items:center;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .kb-image-is-ratio-size{align-self:stretch;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .wp-block-kadence-advancedgallery{align-self:stretch;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kt-row-column-wrap > .kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{align-self:center;}.kt-inner-column-height-full:not(.kt-has-1-columns) > .wp-block-kadence-column.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{align-self:auto;}.kt-inner-column-height-full:not(.kt-has-1-columns) > .wp-block-kadence-column.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{background-color:#033266;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{text-align:center;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{position:relative;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8, .kt-inside-inner-col > .kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8:not(.specificity){margin-top:var(--global-kb-spacing-xs, 1rem);margin-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-xs, 1rem);}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kt-row-column-wrap > .kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{align-self:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kt-inner-column-height-full:not(.kt-has-1-columns) > .wp-block-kadence-column.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{align-self:auto;}}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kt-inner-column-height-full:not(.kt-has-1-columns) > .wp-block-kadence-column.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;align-items:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 767px){.kt-row-column-wrap > .kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{align-self:center;}.kt-inner-column-height-full:not(.kt-has-1-columns) > .wp-block-kadence-column.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8{align-self:auto;}.kt-inner-column-height-full:not(.kt-has-1-columns) > .wp-block-kadence-column.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}.kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;align-items:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column9381_ae8dbd-e8\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.kb-image9381_0909a1-97.kb-image-is-ratio-size, .kb-image9381_0909a1-97 .kb-image-is-ratio-size{max-width:275px;width:100%;}.wp-block-kadence-column > .kt-inside-inner-col > .kb-image9381_0909a1-97.kb-image-is-ratio-size, .wp-block-kadence-column > .kt-inside-inner-col > .kb-image9381_0909a1-97 .kb-image-is-ratio-size{align-self:unset;}.kb-image9381_0909a1-97 figure{max-width:275px;}.kb-image9381_0909a1-97 .image-is-svg, .kb-image9381_0909a1-97 .image-is-svg img{width:100%;}.kb-image9381_0909a1-97:not(.kb-image-is-ratio-size) .kb-img, .kb-image9381_0909a1-97.kb-image-is-ratio-size{padding-top:15px;}.kb-image9381_0909a1-97 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}.kb-image9381_0909a1-97 img.kb-img, .kb-image9381_0909a1-97 .kb-img img{object-position:55.00000000000001% 53%;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image9381_0909a1-97\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/12\/91福利_fullcrest_logo4c_white.png\" alt=\"University of Maine Logo and Crest\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-9399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/12\/91福利_fullcrest_logo4c_white.png 550w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/12\/91福利_fullcrest_logo4c_white-105x45.png 105w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/12\/91福利_fullcrest_logo4c_white-317x136.png 317w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/12\/91福利_fullcrest_logo4c_white-423x182.png 423w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,550px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias communities,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I write to update you on the steps we will take to support the University of Maine System\u2019s Title II digital accessibility effort. In response to updated U.S. Department of Justice regulations under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/law-and-regs\/regulations\/title-ii-2010-regulations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act<\/a>, all <strong>public universities must meet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/WCAG21\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WCAG 2.1 AA<\/a> by April 24, 2026<\/strong>. This applies to all websites, mobile apps, and the digital materials we share with students, employees, and our<br>communities. While compliance is a requirement, it is important to remember that this effort is primarily about accessibility for all and ensuring student success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A number of resources are being developed to support our work toward meeting our obligations under Title II:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Title II Committee:<\/strong> A committee is being formed to support this effort and will be tasked with providing regular updates and identifying resources needed to become compliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Training Materials: <\/strong>91福利 System website has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maine.edu\/content-management\/accessibility-resources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">accessibility resources<\/a> available, including training opportunities. The Title II Committee will also be sharing additional resources to support you in this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL):<\/strong> CITL supports faculty in their efforts to design and deliver accessible instructional materials. <a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/citl\/accessibility-in-classrooms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Find resources for accessibility in the classroom here<\/a>, including an <a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/citl\/accessibility-in-classrooms\/#FAQ_faculty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FAQ<\/a> for faculty.<br><br><strong>91福利.edu: <\/strong>Web accessibility training has been required for all umaine.edu editors since January 1, 2024. If you are an editor and would like to refresh your knowledge on this important subject, the online training <a href=\"https:\/\/umsacademy.maine.edu\/d2l\/le\/discovery\/view\/course\/366530\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cDesigning Accessible Digital Content\u201d<\/a> is available in UMS Academy. You may also contact the Division of Marketing &amp; Communications digital team at <a href=\"mailto:um.weboffice@maine.edu\">um.weboffice@maine.edu<\/a> with specific questions about your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ally:<\/strong> UMS is in the process of licensing a new accessibility evaluation tool called \u201cAlly.\u201d Fully integrated with Brightspace, Ally can detect certain common instances of embedded materials which are not fully accessible and provide alternative formats or feedback to instructors on how to modify their content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are committed to supporting this important System initiative to ensure every member of our university community is provided with accessible content and materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you for your time and attention to this critical work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sincerely,<br><br><strong>Gabe Paquette<\/strong><br>Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost<br>University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias<br>5703 Alumni Hall, Suite 201 | Orono, ME 04469<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional Title II information (equations and handwritten notes)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mathematical content generated by the Equation Editor in the more recent versions of MS Word should be Title II compliant (although perhaps not always by default).&nbsp; The mathematical typesetting program (Lua)LaTeX can generate Title II compliant PDF files with a few relatively minor&nbsp;tweaks, although the widely used LaTeX presentation package Beamer is fundamentally incompatible with the Title II requirements. A Title II compliant alternative is under development. Be aware that other LaTeX packages may be incompatible with Title II compliance as well.&nbsp; For more information see &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/latex3.github.io\/tagging-project\/documentation\/usage-instructions\">Using LaTeX to produce accessible PDF<\/a>&#8221; (external site) or contact <a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/citl\/\">CITL<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scanned Handwritten notes intended for an audience that may change over time (such as notes that will be used unchanged for more than one semester, but not comments on student work or solutions to a test) will have to be converted to a Title II compliant format. <a href=\"https:\/\/mathpix.com\/equation-to-latex\">The program Mathpix<\/a> is used at many schools and universities to convert scanned handwritten mathematical notes to LaTeX, MathML and other formats for mathematical typesetting. Your mileage will likely vary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias communities, I write to update you on the steps we will take to support the University of Maine System\u2019s Title II digital accessibility effort. In response to updated U.S. Department of Justice regulations under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, all public universities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[290,2,297],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-affairs","category-news","category-student-success"],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","archive_9_5":"","portrait_3x4":"","image_16_9":"","image_15_7":"","image_25_7":"","3col-image_16_9":"","3col-image_15_7":"","3col-image_full":"","4col-image_16_9":"","4col-image_15_7":"","4col-image_full":"","6col-image_16_9":"","6col-image_15_7":"","6col-image_full":"","8col-image_16_9":"","8col-image_15_7":"","8col-image_full":"","9col-image_16_9":"","9col-image_15_7":"","9col-image_full":"","12col-image_16_9":"","12col-image_15_7":"","12col-image_full":"","post-thumbnail":"","gform-image-choice-sm":"","gform-image-choice-md":"","gform-image-choice-lg":"","umaps-featured-image":"","umaps-icon-size":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>Dear University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias communities, I write to update you on the steps we will take to support the University of Maine System\u2019s Title II digital accessibility effort. In response to updated U.S. Department of Justice regulations under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, all public universities must meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 24, 2026. This applies to all websites, mobile apps, and the digital materials we share with students, employees, and ourcommunities. While compliance is a requirement, it is important to remember that this effort is primarily about accessibility for&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/blog\/category\/academic-affairs\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Academic Affairs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/blog\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/blog\/category\/student-success\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Student Success<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"wsomes","url":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/blog\/author\/wsomes\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":290,"label":"Academic Affairs"},{"value":2,"label":"News"},{"value":297,"label":"Student Success"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"wsomes","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/blog\/author\/wsomes\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":290,"name":"Academic Affairs","slug":"academic-affairs","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":290,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":290,"category_count":5,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Academic Affairs","category_nicename":"academic-affairs","category_parent":0},{"term_id":2,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":5,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":297,"name":"Student Success","slug":"student-success","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":297,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":297,"category_count":1,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Student Success","category_nicename":"student-success","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9381"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10206,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9381\/revisions\/10206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/provost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}