[NABS-L] Department of Justice Alleged UC Berkeley Violates ADA By Providing Inaccessible Online Content

Tue Jun 7 21:53:58 UTC 2022

Hi everyone,
Please see below from the Department of Justice. Please contact them directly should you wish to respond.

Department of Justice Alleged UC Berkeley Violates ADA By Providing Inaccessible Online Content

After conducting an investigation, the Department of Justice issued a Letter of Findings<https://www.ada.gov/briefs/uc_berkley_lof.pdf> against UC Berkeley, concluding that UC Berkeley’s online content is inaccessible to individuals with disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  UC Berkeley creates and publishes free online content, including courses on its UC Berkeley platform, as well as audio and video content featuring conferences, lectures, sporting events, graduation ceremonies, and other university events or programming on its YouTube and Apple Podcasts channels.  UC Berkeley’s online content is made available to the public, but much of it is inaccessible to individuals with hearing, vision, and manual disabilities.

If you have tried to access UC Berkeley’s online content but were unable to do so because it is inaccessible, please email the Department of Justice at UC.Berkeley at usdoj.gov<mailto:UC.Berkeley at usdoj.gov>.

The Department’s Letter of Findings explained that some of UC Berkeley’s visual online content does not provide an alternative way to access images or visual information (e.g., graphs, charts, animations, or hyperlinks on slides), such as audio description or alternative text, which makes it inaccessible to people with vision disabilities.  Audio description is the verbal description of a visual image (for example, a picture or scene from a movie or play) in order to provide essential information to individuals with vision disabilities.  Similarly, alternative text conveys the content and function of an image, including pictures, illustrations, or charts, to individuals with vision disabilities so that they can understand the image.  The letter also explained that UC Berkeley’s online content also includes documents and links that are inaccessible to screen readers or are not keyboard-accessible because of improper formatting.  As a result, the documents and links are inaccessible to individuals with vision or manual disabilities, including those who use screen readers or who do not use a mouse.

The letter also explained that much of UC Berkeley’s online content includes videos without captions or videos with automated captions (typically referred to as automatic captions) that are inaccurate, lack punctuation or proper grammar, and are difficult or impossible to understand.  As a result, the audio content on the video is inaccessible to people with hearing disabilities.

The Department of Justice is interested in speaking with individuals with disabilities who have faced barriers in accessing UC Berkeley’s free, online content.  Please email us at UC.Berkeley at usdoj.gov<mailto:UC.Berkeley at usdoj.gov>.

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