3Rs Review Strategy: Retire, Replace, Remediate

Take Action on Making Your Digital Content More Accessible

To prepare for the new ADA Title II regulations that require digital web content to be accessible by April 24, 2026, our top priority as an institution is to ensure that all new digital content that we create and post on our websites and in our CarmenCanvas courses is accessible from the start. Some examples of digital content include Word and PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, videos, webinars, podcasts, e-books, Carmen pages, discussion posts, announcements, quizzes and assignments, etc. 

We also need to address the accessibility of our websites and digital class content that already exists. We know this can feel like a daunting task, but it does not have to be! The Digital Accessibility Services team is introducing the 3Rs Review Strategy: Retire, Replace, Remediate. The goal of the 3Rs is to take a prioritized and measured approach to reviewing existing digital content. 

Step 1: Retire

Review content to determine if the content is still relevant and necessary to achieve course goals. If it isn’t relevant, remove or archive content that is no longer being used.

  • For CarmenCanvas: After you have copied your course to a new term, that is a great time to review your content. Do the files, pages, and links still meet course goals? Are you still using each assignment? If you have items you are not going to use, delete them so you do not need to review them for accessibility.
  • For websites: Where to begin? Identify websites that have heavy traffic or provide a service to a large audience. That is a good place to start! When reviewing the content, does it still provide meaningful information to the reader? Work with your unit leadership to come up with a strategy to divide up the reviews.  
    • Tip: You can use PopeTech scans to identify links to documents to get an idea of the volume of files on webpages. If you are unfamiliar with PopeTech, see your Digital Accessibility Coordinator for more information. 

Step 2: Replace

Review the content that made it past the “Retire” stage and assess it for accessibility. If the content is not accessible, determine if it can be replaced with a more accessible version or format. Here are three tips:

  • Replace PDFs with an accessible link from the publisher or library if available.
  • Convert PDFs to a more accessible format (HTML, Word).
  • Replace inaccessible instructional content with accessible content, learning activities, or teaching strategies that meet the same learning objectives of the inaccessible instructional content.
    • Some inaccessible materials may contain very important information or practice for your students. For example, you may currently model problem-solving methods for your students by marking up a PowerPoint slide during class. Because handwritten notes are not detected by screen readers, they are not accessible, requiring you to add alternative text before you share the PowerPoint with your students. An alternate teaching strategy might be to ask students to work together to write the alt text for your handwritten notes as part of a class activity, ensuring your alt text gets written and your students get practice explaining the framework to each other.
    • For more guidance, check out [TITLE OF TLRC ARTICLE].

Step 3: Remediate

If the content needs to remain on the website or in the course in its current format, remediate the accessibility errors. The updated, accessible copy of the content should now be used moving forward. 

Getting Started with Remediation

Faculty and Instructional Staff

  1. Review the 7 Core Skills
  2. Complete the following trainings:
    1. BuckeyeLearn: Fast Track to Accessibility for Microsoft Office
    2. Canvas Class: 7 Pillars of Accessibility [NEED LINK]
  3. If the inaccessible content is a video or PDF, determine if you will remediate it yourself or hire a vendor.
    1. An approved list of remediation vendors is here INSERT LINK
    2. To remediate the content yourself, use the following guides:
      1. For documents, presentations, and audio/video: Producing Accessible Digital Content
      2. Mediasite has automated captions, which can then be reviewed and corrected. Review Captioning Your Presentation for specific instructions.
      3. For Canvas content in the Rich Content Editor: Improve Accessibility with the Rich Content Editor 

Content Contributors

  1. Review the 7 Core Skills
  2. Complete the following trainings:
    1. BuckeyeLearn: Fast Track to Accessibility for Microsoft Office
    2. Fast Track to Accessibility for Non-Technical Roles (?) [LINK?]
  3. If the inaccessible content is a video or PDF, determine if you will remediate it yourself or hire a vendor.
    1. An approved list of remediation vendors is here INSERT LINK  
    2. To remediate the documents, presentations, and audio/video yourself, review: Producing Accessible Digital Content 

 

Additional Resources