Miranda Lacy and Harold Rogers met as undergraduates at West Virginia State University and later enrolled in West Virginia University’s online Master’s in Social Work program. Both are blind and say WVU’s learning materials — course modules, PDFs, readings and other digital content — have often been inaccessible to screen readers, the software blind students use to convert on-screen text into speech.
Rogers, 34, and Lacy, 43, describe repeatedly encountering files with missing or mislabeled text, unlabeled images and poorly structured PDFs that render automated narration useless. Rogers demonstrates a course PDF that causes his screen reader to announce repeated errors and skip essential content. Lacy says the experience has been so frustrating she sometimes wants to throw her computer out the window. Together they say they’ve spent more time troubleshooting access than learning.
Both sought accommodations and tried to work with WVU for nearly two years. Rogers says he faced disciplinary action after requesting accommodations, which he viewed as retaliatory. Frustrated by stalled negotiations, Lacy and Rogers, with the National Federation of the Blind, filed a lawsuit alleging WVU systematically denies blind students equal access to education. WVU declined to comment on pending litigation.
Their legal fight coincides with a significant update to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Department of Justice has issued a rule requiring public entities, including colleges and universities, to meet specific technical standards for digital accessibility by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). The rule aims to make web content, mobile apps and other digital materials usable for people with a range of disabilities — for instance, improving color contrast, requiring captions, and ensuring sites are navigable without a mouse.
Jennifer Mathis, who led digital accessibility work at the DOJ and helped craft the rule, called digital accessibility “a crisis” that had become a top priority for the disability community. Though the ADA already applied to web content, there had been few clear technical standards; the new rule fills that gap.
Publicly funded entities serving 50,000 or more people must comply by April 24; smaller institutions have until April 26, 2027. ADA compliance officers and accessibility consultants say the deadlines have prompted intense planning at colleges, but the work is complex and resource-intensive. Ella Callow, an ADA compliance officer at UC Berkeley, says the rule flips the longstanding model — where disabled students request accommodations — to require that digital content be “born accessible.” Turning large, decentralized universities into models of digital accessibility can take years.
Accessibility teams on campuses are often small and underfunded. Corbb O’Connor of Level Access, an accessibility firm, notes that teams frequently lack budget, staffing and authority. Judith Risch, who worked on the rule at the Department of Education, says many accessibility practices also benefit general usability: clearer structure, labeled images and captions make content easier for everyone.
The new rule also creates clearer legal benchmarks for compliance, which may change how responsibility is assigned on campuses — shifting ownership to faculty, web administrators and procurement staff. Yet there’s no federal inspection regime that will systematically check compliance, and enforcement may continue to rely on complaints, litigation and advocacy. Disability-rights advocates worry that accountability will fall largely on the people most affected: disabled students who already face barriers and limited options.
That dynamic is one reason Rogers and Lacy pursued legal action. “If it’s not us to fight, then who’s gonna do it?” Rogers says. They are seeking policy changes at WVU to make digital materials accessible and compensation for the time they lost trying to access their education.
As the April compliance date approaches, campus administrators report an influx of concern and questions. Accessibility officers say progress requires institutional commitment: budgets, centralized processes for creating and procuring accessible content, training for faculty, and technical fixes across learning management systems and document workflows.
Rogers and Lacy, who still consider their undergraduate campus home, continue to press for change while finishing their degrees. They hope the new ADA rule will make digital learning equitable for future students, and they look forward to walking together at graduation this summer.