LSA's Commitment to Accessibility

The College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts is committed to providing an accessible environment that supports our community, which includes our learners, employees, and visitors with disabilities. This commitment fully aligns with our vision, mission, and values.

Accessibility is necessarily a shared responsibility at the University of Michigan. LSA continues to invest in resources to assist our faculty, staff, and students with implementing accessibility best practices in our courses, events, facilities, services, web content, and beyond. We are also dedicated to providing our community members with clear pathways to request accommodations and to report accessibility barriers.

Together we strive for a college that is accessible by design.

Policy and Standards

Within LSA, accessibility work is guided by best practices established by disability advocacy groups, as well as federal and state laws. These include Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, the Michigan Barrier Free Design Act of 1968, the U.S. Access Board, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. If interested, you can learn more about exceptions to the minimum ADA standard set by the Access Board.

LSA Digital Accessibility Program

In September 2022, the LSA Digital Accessibility Advisory Team (DAAT) was formed as part of LSA’s continual support for accessibility initiatives. The team sought to explore the state of digital accessibility within the college and to propose a strategy for bringing the college into greater alignment with digital accessibility best practices over time. Some of the work that DAAT accomplished included mapping out digital accessibility resources and initiatives across key units and role types, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement, initiating discussions with central U-M offices about remediation tools for enterprise-level digital platforms, and drafting recommendations for college leadership to consider. To learn more about DAAT’s findings, you can read their State of the College Report on Digital Accessibility in LSA.

As recommended by the DAAT team, a role dedicated to advancing digital accessibility in the college was created in December 2023. The Digital Accessibility Specialist works to promote a culture of accessibility in LSA through the development and implementation of a LSA Digital Accessibility Program. Stakeholders from across the college serve as Advisors to the LSA Digital Accessibility Program.

U-M's Digital Accessibility Strategic Initiative

The University of Michigan is committed to making digital accessibility a core aspect of operations.

The goal of the U-M Digital Accessibility Strategic Initiative is to make digital information and experiences accessible to all without barriers, by embedding accessibility into the fabric of everyday work. This initiative is a comprehensive effort that includes:

• raising awareness
• providing necessary tools
• developing robust support systems for U-M communities

The Strategic Initiative supports U-M’s alignment with standards, policy, and regulations, including WCAG 2.1 AA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Our objectives and timelines are designed to meet updated regulations for digital accessibility at large public universities, including a federal compliance deadline of April 2026, as described in a 2024 update to regulations for Title II of the ADA.

You can learn more about the overall timeline, objectives and goals, and ways to get involved on U-M’s Strategic Initiative page.

As a public university, the University of Michigan is legally required to comply with federal regulations regarding accessibility. For more information on the relevant regulations that guide U-M's internal policy and standards, check out the Regulations and Compliance page on the University of Michigan's digital accessibility website.