Cases

Miami University of Ohio

A Miami University student, who is blind filed a complaint against Miami University for violating Title II of the ADA and Section 504. She alleged that Miami University excluded her from participation in and the benefits of Miami's services, programs, and activities. The United States complaint alleged that Miami University (1) uses technologies that are inaccessible to qualified individuals with disabilities; and (2) has failed to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities can access Miami’s curricular and co-curricular materials on an equal basis with individuals who do not have disabilities.

A consent decree was reached on October 17, 2016 with the United States Department of Justice and Miami University. As per the decree, Miami University will change its practices for obtaining and utilizing technology, including requirements to make its website accessible, to ensure Learning Management Software is accessible, and to educate faculty and staff about the importance of accessibility and how to achieve this.

Learn more by viewing this case and more from the 2017 Cielo24 report: Download Higher Education Lawsuits & Video Accessibility.

Penn State

Penn State University settled a suit with the National Federation of the Blind, leading to massive changes for the institution. Thankfully for us, an excellent website on accessibility was one of the products of this lawsuit. Review that settlement Links to an external site. and bookmark the Penn State website Links to an external site.!

Publisher Resources

In 2013, Louisiana Tech University Links to an external site.settled with the justice department over the use of a publisher product “MyOMLab” that was not accessible for blind students. This has drawn attention to the issue with using third-party tools.

Harvard and MIT

Then in 2015, a suit from National Association of the Deaf against Harvard and MIT for their EdX courses stating they violated antidiscrimination laws over not having closed captions in MOOCs made headlines. EdX settled in April 2015, and is required to “provide accurate captioning for the deaf, oral navigation signals for the blind, and programming changes so those with dexterity disabilities can navigate content without struggling with a hand-operated mouse,” among other stipulations, according to a Department of Justice Links to an external site. press release.

It’s important to note that when an institution is sued over accessibility, the faculty member is named in the suit as well. These are just a FEW of the examples of cases that institutions and faculty have had to deal with.  If you are interested in exploring further, Laura Carlson from the University of Minnesota Duluth has compiled an extensive list Links to an external site..

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