Accessibility in Online Courses

CUNY School of Professional Studies

An icon. "Level Up" written on top of books with a arrow pointing up.

To help make higher education available to as many students as possible, CUNY SPS supports course design that upholds the principles of accessibility. New federal regulations taking effect on April 24, 2026 require institutions like CUNY to ensure that all online course materials meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards. SPS courses already rest on a solid foundation, but with our Level Up! project, we’re working together to make our online learning environment even more accessible and inclusive for all students.

During Spring 2026, we are focusing on key practices that improve the accessibility of text, media, and documents. One tool we will be using in this work is Anthology Ally, the accessibility checker built into Brightspace. Ally helps identify potential accessibility issues and provides guided tools to fix many of them directly within the LMS. However, like all automated checkers, Ally cannot evaluate everything: it cannot review content hosted outside Brightspace, and some issues will require human judgment to resolve effectively.

CUNY SPS is committed to making good‑faith efforts to identify and remove barriers that limit student access to online course materials. Accessibility is not about achieving perfection—it’s about making intentional progress using the tools, expertise, and resources available to us. We invite you to explore the resources on this site to learn more and join the work to Level Up! accessibility across SPS courses.