Laws that Support Our Efforts in California Community Colleges

On June 19, 2018, Chancellor Ortiz sent out a letter stating that accessibility is an institutional responsibility that highlighted the following laws and also encouraged adopting Universal Design Principles as it supports the framework for creating inclusive and accessible learning environments:

In 1998, the Office of Civil Rights issued a compliance review of the California Community Colleges and identified systemic deficiencies with how we meet the needs of students with disabilities. To remedy the situation, the state legislature and our system made significant investments to provide our districts and colleges with the resources necessary to make information and communication technology and instructional materials accessible. Despite these investments, we need to do more to meet the needs of our students with disabilities. Just last December, the California State Auditor issued an audit of our system’s accessibility practices and found numerous instances of colleges and districts not meeting their institutional accessibility obligations.

As a first step in addressing this situation, the California Community Colleges has adopted a new Information and Communication Technology and Instructional Material Accessibility Standard (Standard), which reinforces the requirement that colleges within the system create, purchase, and utilize instructional materials that comply with the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, in accordance with California Government Code §7405, Government Code §11135, Government Code §11546.7, as well as with best practices.

Quick Laws Breakdown

Section 504

"No individual, solely by reason of her or his disability...be denied the benefits of any program, service, or activity..."

Section 504 is about accommodation.

Making it work for individuals
Disability service offices created to serve students’ needs.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

"All training and informational video and multimedia productions must contain captions..."

Section 508 is about access.

Create accessible software, Web sites, videos, and documents.
Purchase accessible products.
Campuswide responsibility

21st Century Communications & Video Accessibility Act (CVAA)

"Closed captioning on video programming delivered using Internet protocol..."

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Read Laws, Student Civil Rights, & Copyright.

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