Cortland REACH

Resources for Equitable and Accessible Course Help

Cortland REACH is a collaborative initiative run by the Center for Teaching and Learning, Disability Resources, and the Memorial Library.  During Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, we will offer workshops, consultations, events, and other programming to support faculty as they revise course content to meet the Title II digital accessibility requirements.  We're also taking the opportunity to move beyond Title II to support the integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) techniques because we know that all our students can benefit from broad incorporation of UDL. 

What is Title II?

Beginning April 24, 2026, Cortland must ensure that all its digital materials conform to Title II Regulations. If you'd like to read the full requirement, you can review it by clicking on this link for the Americans with Disability Act, Title II Regulations.  

Title II is not a new requirement. It has been around for years.  Last year, the federal government established a timeline for satisfying the requirement. In doing so, they shifted the responsibility from the individual to the university. 

• Old rule: Students must request accommodations. The university must provide equal access in a timely manner.
• New rule: Digital course content must be accessible from the start.

Rather than waiting for a student to request an accommodation, we're now focusing on providing access for everyone. That's good news because Title II improves the user experience for all of us, regardless of need, and it supports Cortland's goals for equity, inclusion, and well-being. 

The changes required by Title II will enhance our students' learning experience and provide everyone in our community with a more equitable digital experience.

The (slight) downside is that many of us began designing our digital materials without considering accessibility, and some of us are stuck in our ways. Revising our old materials to fit Title II requirements can feel overwhelming for those of us who have years of material, and it can feel a bit limiting for those of us who enjoy design.  We will have to make a few design sacrifices and learn some new tricks to ensure our digital materials are accessible. Still, the benefits of accessible content outweigh a bit of extra work over the next year.  The learning we do now will pay dividends for years to come and help us demonstrate that we support all of our students. 

REACH Offerings: 

• Events: Click here to view upcoming workshops. We will offer three workshops per month through April on the topics of Using Ally in BrightSpace, Using Accessible Library Resources, WCAG, and other accessibility related topics. 
• Asynchronous Accessibility Course: Starting September 1, all faculty are invited to sign up for our Asynchronous Accessibility Course. To register, please click on this link. 
• Communities of Practice: Starting this fall, we will offer a Universal Design for Learning Community of Practice led by our SUNY Accessibility Fellow Carrie Rood. We will also offer a Book Club Community led by Jennifer Hall, Senior Director of the CTL, Reach Everyone Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education.  Click on this link to register for either the UDL Community of Practice or the UDL Book Club. 
• 12 Days of Accessibility: In December, Cortland REACH will host the 12 Days of Accessibility. The department that shows the most improvement at the end of the 12 Days will win either bagels or pizza for their next department meeting. 
• April Accessibility Day:  On Thursday, April 2nd, in honor of World Autism Awareness Day, we will offer a full day of Accessibility Support and Workshops. You can drop into the Center for Teaching and Learning in Memorial Library to help make your course more accessible. 

We hope you can join us for all or some of these events. Accessibility is good for us all. We follow these guidelines because we believe in them, not because we are required to do so, and we hope this year's activities will give us all the support we need to become the teachers we always aspired to be.