Section 504 and the Right to Accessible Education
In previous posts, we explored the legal arguments for the attack on Section 504 in detail, including the argument being rooted in gender dysphoria as well as the impacts dismantling Section 504 will have on disabled job seekers.
This post will not go into those details but will discuss one of the more systemic issues preventing and blocking learners from having access to their curriculum, books, lessons, and homework. Accessibility in a website isn’t just a technical requirement—it’s a civil right. Digital accessibility has never been more important for our K-12 students. Digital accessibility of books, curriculum, lessons, and homework.
How well would most students succeed without digital access to their books, lessons, or homework?
Why K-12 Digital Accessibility Is Urgent
While these legal and policy storms gather, everyday life in our schools has already transformed.
K-12 education is now a digital-first experience. Students use online learning platforms, digital textbooks, videos, educational apps, and school websites as part of their daily learning.
This was true even before the pandemic, but the shift to remote and hybrid learning in recent years has cemented digital tools at the core of teaching.
This is why digital accessibility has never been more important. If our educational tools, software, and computers are not accessible by design, it shuts out entire groups of learners.
How Inaccessible Tools Fail Students — And Why We Must Test Website Accessibility
Technology can engage students in new ways, clearly. However, what isn’t so clear are the consequences of not everyone having equal access to the same public education, even if they show up to school every day.
Consider a visually impaired student trying to use an online homework portal that hasn’t been coded to test website accessibility with a screen reader, or a deaf student watching a science video that has no captions.
If we’re retrofitting accessibility after the fact, we’re too late. By the time someone realizes a video needs captions or a PDF needs tagging for a screen reader, a student may have already fallen behind or been excluded from an activity.
Why Is WCAG Compliance Mandatory for K-12 Schools
For students, it’s about access to education and learning.
For the schools, it’s about compliance and cost.
Fixing accessibility problems later is what drives up the cost of accessibility compliance the most.
When accessibility violations are not addressed, schools and their support staff are left scrambling to find alternate solutions and workarounds. Often these quick fixes unintentionally isolate students, drawing unwanted attention to their disabilities and differences.
Section 504 is one major reason schools are obligated to avoid these scenarios. It mandates that students with disabilities receive equitable access, which extends to digital content and online services provided by the school.
In short, a school district receiving federal funds must ensure its websites, learning management systems, and educational technology meet accessibility compliance standards and are usable by all students.
Many districts have what’s known as “504 Plans” for students detailing their accommodations and support needs. Increasingly, those include digital accommodations like assistive technology and accessible software. If Section 504 became weakened, the mandate to proactively build accessibility into education would also suffer.
We already know digital accessibility is best built in from the beginning. And digital accessibility gets harder and harder the longer and longer it isn’t addressed. Or forgotten about.
The Role of a Web Accessibility Tester in Inclusive Education
Digital learning environments that every student can access are better learning environments.
Captions on videos don’t just help deaf students – they help students who learn better with visual text support. They also help those studying in a noisy home environment.
Clear, navigable websites don’t just benefit blind students using screen readers – they make it easier for all parents and students to find information quickly.
That’s why web accessibility testing and remediation are no longer best practices. They are core to learning outcomes.
How DARTSuite’s Certified Accessibility Testers Help K-12 Schools
You might be asking, “What can we do right now to make a difference?”
Outside of advocating for Section 504, one practical step is to double down on digital accessibility.
Significantly reducing the cost of accessibility compliance, DARTSuite’s innovative platform offers enterprise-level accessibility tools for 10% of the cost while also delivering access to experts on-demand.
The outcome is fair, usage based pricing only as you need it, exactly when you need it.
DARTSuite is your team of WCAG testers and consultants waiting for you on call to help you find, fix, and forget about compliance.
Ready to get started with digital accessibility?
Learn more about DARTSuite and get access to your own digital accessibility experts on-demand!