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Updating contracts and requiring edtech vendors to submit accessibility reports is only one part of accessibility readiness. This article examines why school districts need to pay more attention to accessibility right now, what they need to do, and how to integrate accessibility into ongoing practice.
It’s April 24th, 2026, the day that most school districts become legally liable for the final rule for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Your contract probably already requires that all curriculum publishers and edtech providers to comply with Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and all state laws. Your Purchasing department probably already requires each vendor to submit an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), to show that they meet Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). But, no matter how many administrative boxes your district checks, you are still on the hook for complying with the ADA.
So, what do you need to know? There are two significant reasons why accessibility compliance matters right now.
Reason #1: Liability
Most public school districts are now required by law to assure Level AA compliance to WCAG version 2.1 or above. Failure to meet this requirement opens the district to federal or state action, as well as legal action from private citizens and non-governmental organizations. A total of 3,117 accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2025, a 27% increase over 2024. It seems likely there will be another increase in 2026.
More than 3,000 accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court last year.
Reason #2: Our Mission
Before we look at what’s required to be Level AA compliant, it’s important to explore the second reason why accessibility is an urgent matter: It’s mission-critical! NCES data show that 15% of public school students receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). A lack of accessibility blocks them from learning at their full potential, literally causing harm to millions of children. How could we not prioritize this?
But the benefits of accessibility don’t stop with the 15%. There are downstream benefits for the other 85% of students, too. Accessible content and technology features can reduce cognitive load and increase ease of use for all learners.
To illustrate this point, consider the history of closed captioning for television. Captioning made its debut in the 1970s. It was originally intended for deaf and hard of hearing TV viewers. Now a majority of online video viewers regularly use closed captioning for all sorts of reasons.
Getting Into Compliance
In order to comply with the ADA rule, all of your curriculum resources and edtech programs must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The guidelines have three levels, A, AA, and AAA. Districts must meet all A and AA criteria. As of this writing, there are 32 Level A criteria and 24 Level AA criteria. Vendors must warrant that they meet all of these criteria or explain any exceptions and how they will remedy them.
Here are three concrete examples of WCAG criteria so you can get a flavor for how they work:
Example #1: Focus Order and Focus Visible
A student using a keyboard to navigate a website or app in place of a computer mouse or trackpad needs to have a visual indicator of focus. A “focus” is an interactive object on the screen like a link, a button, or an answer choice. The student then needs to be able to use the RETURN or ENTER key to activate the object in focus — or else use the TAB or arrow keys to navigate to other interactive objects. There could easily be 20 or 30 interactive objects on a webpage! You can see how this requires some thought and planning by the edtech provider to implement it in a way that is meaningful.
Example #2: Resize Text
A student needs to be able to resize body text by up to 200% without assistive technology and without losing content or functionality. In Speak Agent, we implemented a text magnification menu for all of our text-based activities, along with image zoom and audio controls. We decided to add several midpoints between 100% and 200% magnification for better usability. Text resizing may sound simple, but it’s not. It can wreak havoc on page layout unless the website or app designers first consider the impact of dynamic resizing on every element of the user interface.
Example #3: Compatibility
Assistive technologies such as screen readers will read HTML code to be able to parse text, navigation, forms, progress indicators, and other page elements. If the website or app is not coded correctly, this can confuse assistive technologies or omit important information. In some cases, the software developers may need to add invisible labels called ARIA tags that are only read by machines. The edtech provider needs to be intentional about what to label and how to make the information helpful.
Our Accessibility Journey
What we’ve learned by developing Speak Agent to address the 56 level A and AA accessibility requirements is that accessibility is not a one-time project, but rather an ongoing practice.
- First, our platform is always evolving. We’re adding or tweaking features and user interfaces all the time. Every addition and revision we make needs to comply with the standards.
- Second, the accessibility standards change too. WCAG has gone through many versions and will continue to be updated as technology evolves and the way in which people use technology evolves.
Accessibility requires constant effort, vigilance, and a cycle of continuous improvement. And there is always room for improvement, even if you meet a requirement to the letter.
Remember that each WCAG requirement represents a floor, not a ceiling. It defines compliance as “The functionality of the product has at least one method that meets the criterion without known defects.” That does not tell you how good that one method is or whether additional methods would be of benefit to students. For example, with Resize Text, you could comply by having just two text magnification options: 100% and 200%. But wouldn’t it be better to have several more options to give the reader finer control?
Back in 2012, our CTO, Katie Cunningham, wrote a well-regarded book on accessibility for web developers, Accessibility Handbook: Making 508 Compliant Websites. Even with 20 years of specialized experience, Katie does not find accessibility easy or simple. Our team makes plenty of mistakes. The key is that we have a mindset and procedures in place to keep improving.
Our Commitment
The team here at Speak Agent has three motivations driving us to prioritize accessibility:
- First, we want to protect our partner districts from liability. We do this by integrating accessibility as a core practice in our platform and course development cycles.
- Second, accessibility is fundamental to our company mission. We simply cannot move the needle on the language-driven academic achievement gap if 15% of students have difficulty accessing our program.
- Last but not least, many of our staff or their family members have experienced a learning disability. Education technology gives us an opportunity to help level the playing field, provided we continue to build accessibility into our ongoing practice.
Our Accessibility Guide
We maintain a multilingual guide detailing the many accessibility features and settings for educators, students, and families at the following link:
