On Monday, May 12, Erin Sanders O’Leary, Inaugural Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning, and Lucy Avestisyan, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer, shared this message via Bruin Post.
As part of the university’s ongoing commitment to elevate teaching and create learning environments where all students can thrive, the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), Bruin Learn Center of Excellence (CoE), Disabilities and Computing Program (DCP)and other campus partners are working to enhance our digital accessibility resources for instructors. Practicing digital accessibility involves creating online content that allows everyone to access and engage with instructional materials — including those who use assistive technology.
Developing course materials with digital accessibility in mind is consistent with UCLA ADA/504 Compliance and UC Diversity commitments to inclusive excellence. The U.S. Department of Justice has mandated that state and local government institutions, including UCLA, meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards by April 24, 2026, to ensure compliance with accessibility laws and regulations (see final rule). To meet these guidelines, instructors may need to adjust some course materials for digital accessibility, such as adding alternate text to images, confirming that captions or transcripts are available for video and audio content and ensuring documents such as PDFs are shared in a format that all students can access and understand.
Instructor Support for Digital Accessibility
We recognize that instructors may already be managing significant research and teaching responsibilities, along with challenges created by external factors currently impacting higher education. This is why the TLC, DTS and DCP are working together to support instructors in meeting these new standards. The TLC’s digital accessibility pageincludes a teaching guide, resources, information about training and workshops and opportunities for professional development. Instructors can contact BruinLearn-Support@it.ucla.edu for assistance or to set up a consultation. Inquiries may be directed to DCP, the TLC or the Center for Accessible Education, depending on the inquiry. Bruin Learn office hours are also available for general questions about Bruin Learn and the Ally tool. Instructors from UCLA Extension should contact LearningDesign@uclaextension.edu.
Assessing Course Material Accessibility
Several tools are currently available to instructors to determine if course materials are accessible and receive guidance to make needed improvements. Software applications, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Pro, have embedded accessibility checkers with guidance that instructors can use to ensure they are providing accessible course materials to students. UCLA also provides access to Ally, a tool already integrated into Bruin Learn that runs accessibility checks on course content and files.
Important Ally Features
Ally is designed to test for common issues found in uploaded files (such as PDFs and multimedia) when instructors add these materials to their Bruin Learn course site.
- Ally provides feedback to instructors by assigning an accessibility score for each file. Instructors can click any score icon to launch a wizard that helps guide them through accessibility problems found with that content and offers remediation guidance.
- Ally automatically generates alternative formats (such as tagged PDF, HTML, electronic braille or audio) that students can download and use to support their learning.
For questions regarding the Bruin Learn Ally tool, contact BruinLearn-Support@it.ucla.edu.
We will continue to share resources and information about these new federal mandates between now and the date the new standards go into effect, and we encourage instructors to visit the digital accessibility page regularly. We appreciate your ongoing collaboration as we work to enhance the learning experience for all UCLA students.
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