Ohio State University

How Ohio State University Empowered Faculty to Meet ADA Title II Requirements and Achieve WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance for Course Materials

Enterprise-scale document accessibility across 65,000+ students and hundreds of departments

Industry: Higher Education / Public University
Standards: WCAG 2.1 Level AA, PDF/UA, Ohio State MDAS, ADA Title II Compliance
Products: PDFix Desktop Enterprise

Results

Faculty independently produce accessible course materials across departments, meeting Ohio State’s MDAS standards ahead of the ADA Title II 2026 deadline with consistent WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance.

About the Organization

The Ohio State University is one of the largest universities by enrollment in the United States, with over 50,000 undergraduate students and 15,000 graduate students.

As a comprehensive research university, Ohio State produces thousands of digital course materials daily. With 175 undergraduate majors and 240 master’s, doctoral, and professional degree programs, the university’s decentralized structure means content creation happens across hundreds of departments and thousands of faculty members.

The Challenge: ADA Title II Compliance

The new Title II regulations require all public-facing and student-facing content to be fully conformant with the WCAG 2.1 by April 24, 2026.

The university needed a solution that could:

Process course materials across all departments efficiently
Enable faculty to create accessible content independently without accessibility expertise
Support STEM content with complex technical elements
Meet Ohio State’s MDAS and WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards
Provide validation to confirm compliance before publication
Scale across the entire institution without overwhelming central accessibility teams

The Solution: PDFix Desktop Enterprise for Faculty-Driven Accessibility

Ohio State deployed PDFix Desktop Enterprise to empower faculty and accessibility teams to create accessible course materials independently, rather than relying on centralized remediation services that couldn’t scale to meet the university’s volume.

PDFix Desktop Enterprise: Key Features Applied

PDF Auto-Tagging
- Automatically analyzes document layouts and structure
- Applies semantic tags for headings, lists, tables, and reading order
- Handles complex STEM content including mathematical equations and technical diagrams

Built-in WCAG & PDF/UA Validation
- Industry-standard VeraPDF checker
- Comprehensive WCAG compliance checking
- Detailed failure reporting with remediation guidance
- Clear pass/fail determination before documents are published

Faculty-Friendly Compliance Workflow
- Intuitive interface designed for non-technical users
- Batch processing capabilities for course material sets
- Manual editing tools for complex content
- No extensive training required – faculty can be productive immediately

Centralized Accessibility Compliance Reporting
- Enterprise deployment enables institutional tracking
- Accessibility teams can monitor compliance progress

Results: Faculty Independence and Compliance

Quantitative Outcomes

Independent production of accessible course materials across departments
MDAS compliance with Ohio State’s Standards ahead of the 2026 deadline
Consistent quality achieving WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance
Improved access to course materials for students with disabilities

Operational Benefits

Scalable compliance
- Faculty-driven model scales across the entire institution without increases in accessibility staff
- Ohio State is on track to meet the April 24, 2026 ADA Title II compliance deadline
- All students, including those with disabilities, gain equitable access to course materials
Faster turnaround
- Course materials made accessible during creation, not as a post-production bottleneck
Audit-ready validation: VeraPDF integration provides documented proof of WCAG compliance
Risk mitigation: Compliance with federal ADA Title II regulations reduces legal and reputational risk