ITAL & …

Beyond the Minimum

New Rule Requires Web Content (I’m Looking at You, LibGuides) to
Meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA Standards
Urszula (Ula) Lechtenberg and Helene Gold

Libraries take the call for accessibility very seriously. Whether designing spaces that
accommodate different abilities or learning experiences that reach all users, libraries and library
workers have been driving the industry forward through practical frameworks (like Universal
Design for Learning) and in adopting assistive technologies. According to the ALA’s report
“Accessibility in Libraries: A Landscape Review,” libraries are among the most accessible
institutions in society, particularly when it comes to web accessibility. 1 However, our web content
can still fall short of the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines first developed in 1999 and
continuously updated through the present day. 2

In April 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) finalized a rule updating regulations for Title II of
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires that all state and local governments
make their services, programs, and activities accessible, including those that are offered online
and in mobile apps. The ADA is a civil rights law passed in 1990 and amended in 2008 that
prohibits discrimination based on disability and guarantees that people with disabilities have the
same opportunities in employment, the purchase of goods and services, and in participation in
state and local government programs as anyone else. 3 Title II of the ADA is a section of the law that
applies to state and local governments or “public entities,” a term that includes public education.
The final rule dictates that public entities’ web content meet the technical standards of the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, level AA, an industry standard since its
creation. Libraries that receive federal funding will be required to follow this new rule for any web
content they create and provide to their users. This will apply to widely used platforms, such as
LibGuides, as well as licensed content.
Public institutions will need to begin planning immediately as the compliance deadlines, based on
census-defined population size, must be met by April 26, 2027, for service areas with a population
size of less than 50,000 and April 26, 2026, for populations over 50,000.
Although the rule currently applies only to public institutions under Title II, experts “expect this
regulation to serve as a template for any forthcoming web accessibility regulation that the DOJ
may promulgate under Title III of the ADA.”4 While Title II pertains to state and local governments,
Title III prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in public places, including private
businesses. Private entities with an educational mission (and with libraries) will likely be affected
by this new rule as well.

About the Authors

Urszula (Ula) Lechtenberg ([email protected]) (corresponding author) is Learning Design Coordinator,
University of Pittsburgh. Helene Gold ([email protected]) is STEM Librarian, University of
Kentucky. © 2024.
This contributed column was submitted on 21 November 2024 and published 16 December 2024.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | DECEMBER 2024

https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v43i4.17312
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES DECEMBER 2024

The DOJ rule applies to all content accessed on the web and through mobile apps, including
course/learning management platforms, linked third-party licensed material, and digital displays.
Basically, the rule applies to content that libraries preserve and provide access to through any
licensed platform or service, including the ILS and Springshare products. This rule applies to
library websites as well. Although it is still not clear exactly how exceptions will be defined, we
anticipate they will include archived web content that will not be altered and is intended only for
research/reference purposes, existing electronic documents, and social media content created
before the effective rule compliance dates. Because libraries produce, manage, and preserve a
tremendous amount of content, we must begin planning now to systematically ensure compliance
with the WCAG 2.1 AA standards. We feel that it’s particularly important to single out
Springshare’s LibGuides, since its content management platform allows library workers the
opportunity to create web content easily and quickly and because of the sheer number of
published guides (almost one million in over one hundred countries), not to mention all the
libraries that have built their websites on the LibGuides CMS platform.5 But, without institutional
guidelines, templates, and regular assessment, LibGuides with varying fonts, colors, navigation,
layout, and content types may or may not meet basic WCAG standards. Fortunately, all
Springshare services are compliant with WCAG 2.1, but libraries are responsible for ensuring
compliance at the AA level.

WCAG AA compliance:

• requires text versions for any non-text media (e.g., captioning for both live and recorded
media, alternative text for images) and/or audio descriptions for certain pre-recorded
media;
• sets color contrast standards for text and non-text media;
• provides functional standards for keyboard and mouse navigation;
• establishes formatting guidelines for the logical organization of headings, tables, webpages,
etc.; and
• details expectations around the functionality of assistive technologies.6

Springshare’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template Report for LibGuides (available through
the Springshare Lounge) was last updated in February 2024 and demonstrates that the web
authoring tool fully or partially supports Level AA for all accessibility criteria, for example: the
ability to enter alt text fields for images, built-in contrast ratio requirements, and the ability for
screen readers to bypass navigation menus and skip to main content. While the platform’s built-in
accessibility features have the ability to create accessible guides by default, authors must still take
care to maintain WCAG standards with design elements. Many authors choose to match LibGuide
tabs, headings, and fonts with the color brand of their school or to add decorative images and
flourishes that do not convey information. While these design choices are not prohibited, carefully
following WCAG 2.1 AA standards allows customization within the limits of accessibility.
Using CSS allows us to go beyond the minimum of accessibility compliance to create a visually
dynamic page while also improving the LibGuide experience for all users. Although developing the
CSS expertise needed to create and maintain dynamic and accessible LibGuides is an additional
challenge, the benefits are numerous.

BEYOND THE MINIMUM 2

LECHTENBERG AND GOLD
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES DECEMBER 2024

CSS can:

• Automatically adjust font size, line height, and contrast for enhanced readability.
• Enhance responsive design across all device types, meaning it will adapt content to
different screen sizes.
• Enhance the visual structure of the page without altering HTML. For example, you can
change the visual layout of the header, navigation menu, main content, and footer of a
LibGuide, but the HTML will not be affected, allowing screen readers to read the content in
the intended order.
• Create a flexbox that adjusts the layout of different elements depending on screen size,
allowing you to alter the graphic design without altering the HTML.
If your library does not use a standardized template or have guidelines for LibGuide design,
testing, review, and assessment, individual content creators will be required to review and test
their public guides to ensure compliance. For libraries using CSS to create a common feel and
experience across all LibGuides, making necessary updates and edits will be less burdensome
since CSS is applied across all linked LibGuides. However, many institutions do not use CSS, and
individual authors may have scores of guides that need to be updated (made even more time
consuming if common shared elements are not used across guides). This is the perfect opportunity
to unpublish guides that are obsolete, outdated, or have low use. This is also the perfect
opportunity to ensure WCAG 2.1 AA standards apply to all new LibGuides. Following the most
basic standards and using the four POUR principles of accessibility should be a priority:

• Perceivability: not using light colored fonts on light backgrounds, which results in very
low contrast;
• Operability: using descriptive links rather than “click here;”
• Understandability: using descriptive alternative text for images or designating images
that serve a purely decorative purpose.
• Robustness: avoiding poor navigation such as the use of redundant or vague titles and
headings of content boxes and elements. 7

Although LibGuides give us tremendous freedom and flexibility to author our own web pages, the
basics of writing and designing for the web are founded on accessibility compliance; most of the
early guidelines and rules from almost twenty years ago are still relevant. For example, avoid
using color to impart meaning, avoid using multiple fonts, avoid using heading sizes other than
denoting hierarchy (starting with H1 and following the correct order), and avoid embedding video
without captions or accompanying text scripts.
Even if a LibGuide is fully WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, the design and layout can still result in a poor
experience for learners using screen readers. For instance, screen readers must read every
element of the webpage, beginning with page title and banner elements, through the LibGuide
banner elements and tabs, before reading the content boxes. Reducing the number of tabs can
improve a learner’s experience significantly, since the program must read all the tabs before
reading the content (and the learner must remember all the tabs to navigate to those pages). Using
the Previous/Next page navigation options can be useful as well. Screen readers read LibGuides
vertically by column, making three-column guides especially cumbersome. Eliminating
unnecessary text such as welcome and purpose messages or lengthy descriptions, using one or
two columns, and hiding breadcrumb navigation are a few ways to improve the experience. We
recommend you experience navigating your guides through a screen reader, which is easy to do

BEYOND THE MINIMUM 3

LECHTENBERG AND GOLD
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES DECEMBER 2024

using the programs built into Windows (search “Narrator” in the task bar) and MacOS
(“VoiceOver,” Command-F5).

To ensure your LibGuides (or other webpages) are minimally WCAG 2.1 compliant, you can use a
variety of free tools that thoroughly review sites:

• The WAVE suite of evaluation tools developed by the WebAIM division of the Institute for
Disability Research, Policy & Practice at Utah State University have been in development
since 1999 and offer a variety of solutions. The WAVE site provides the ability to inspect
sites one page at a time by copying and pasting URLs or by using a private and secure
browser extension. Pricing for the stand-alone API and Accessibility IMpact (AIM)
assessment reports are available as well.
• W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative provides a comprehensive list of evaluation tools that
can be filtered and searched by platform, price, type, scope and more.
• Deque’s Axe tools provide options from browser extensions to comprehensive developer,
auditor, and monitoring solutions for larger-scale, enterprise-level needs.
In addition to meeting basic usability accessibility standards, we feel it’s important to draw
attention to the purpose that LibGuides serve and how we must consider the information seeking
behavior of our users. The literature has shown unequivocally that typical LibGuide design lacks
pedagogical effectiveness, clear navigation, and intuitive usability. Guide design often does not
center the learner and their needs (quick access to specific research resources and tools) but
rather centers libraries’ collections and services, which are often already available on the library
website. For instance, many LibGuides feature long lists of print materials and/or content boxes
labeled “Helpful/Useful Links.” These carefully curated lists are often neither helpful nor useful for
meeting the immediate research needs of students’ assignments/projects and, they are a burden
to navigate for any learner using assistive technology to read these pages. 8

We will add here that another option in working towards a more accessible web presence in light
of this deadline is to not make a new LibGuide at all. If existing guides are not up to the AA level,
they should be prioritized for update over the creation of new guides. As we prepare to update our
web content for accessibility and usability, this is also the time to perform an assessment, no
matter how informal, around the purpose, design, and overall usability of our LibGuides. Student
research behavior is grounded in the ease and immediacy of open web search tools, and study
after study9 shows students are unlikely to seek out and use curated lists of sources when hoping
to find the right database, book, or journal to meet their immediate research need. In addition to
broad subject-based guides, purposefully creating guides that are process- or skills-driven, or
developed at the course/assignment level and linked directly in the LMS, have higher pedagogical
impact. Springshare offers an LTI tool that allows automatic integration of course-specific guides
and databases into their corresponding course shells.
When performing an informal or formal assessment of LibGuides for web accessibility purposes,
keep alternative ways of engagement in mind. By taking on a student-centered lens, we can
develop new ways of connecting and engaging with students. Creating modules within the LMS
environment, for example, is an alternative method to effective student engagement. Not only does
this place the library at the point of need for students as they are working on research
assignments, it also allows librarians to plan a more sustainable workload for themselves.
Arguably, reusable content for a variety of courses, especially if focused on process- or skills-based
instruction, is easier to maintain and keep up to date than disparate LibGuides.

BEYOND THE MINIMUM 4

LECHTENBERG AND GOLD
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES DECEMBER 2024

The DOJ rule will have wide ranging implications for libraries due to various types of web content
libraries provide, from our actual websites, to educational tools, to archival materials, and more. It
will be important to use the tools Springshare already provides that support minimum compliance
for web accessibility standards. We recommend using a learner-centered lens when creating any
instructional materials, including LibGuides, with an emphasis on considering what students need
to be successful in their assignments. Universal Design for Learning is one framework that allows
for incorporating learning preferences and accessibility standards from the ground up instead of
retrofitting into what already exists. This approach builds in some future-proofing in case
standards continue to change. Although the DOJ’s new rule complicates things for public entities,
including libraries, it is necessary for us to be and stay accessible for all our communities.
FURTHER READING
Burchfield, Julie, and Maggie Possinger. “Managing Your Library’s LibGuides: Conducting A
Usability Study to Determine Student Preference for LibGuide Design.” Information Technology
and Libraries 42, no. 4 (December 2023): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v42i4.16473.
Campbell, Lisa Bouffard, and Brittany Kester. “Centering Students with Disabilities: An Accessible
User Experience Study of a Library Research Guide.” Weave: Journal of Library User Experience 6,
no. 1 (April 17, 2023). https://doi.org/10.3998/weaveux.1067.
Chee, Michael, Zia Davidian, and Kari D. Weaver. “More to Do than Can Ever Be Done: Reconciling
Library Online Learning Objects with WCAG 2.1 Standards for Accessibility.” Journal of Web
Librarianship 16, no. 2 (April 3, 2022): 87–119.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2022.2062521.
Chee, Michael, and Kari D. Weaver. “Meeting a Higher Standard: A Case Study of Accessibility
Compliance in LibGuides upon the Adoption of WCAG 2.0 Guidelines.” Journal of Web Librarianship
15, no. 2 (April 3, 2021): 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2021.1907267.
Crego-Emley, Amanda, and Kate Lambaria. “Expanding the Pathfinder’s Purpose: A Pedagogical
Approach to Redesigning LibGuides.” Public Services Quarterly 20, no. 2 (April 2, 2024): 77–101.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2024.2334871.
DeFrain, Erica, Leslie Sult, and Nicole Pagowsky. “Effectiveness of Academic Library Research
Guides for Building College Students’ Information Literacy Skills: A Scoping Review.” UNL
Libraries: Faculty Publications, September 1, 2025.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/446.
Easterday, Justin. “Adapting Research Guides and Library Instruction to Provide Educational
Support for Distance and In-Person Learners.” The Southeastern Librarian 71, no. 2 (August 11,
2023). https://doi.org/10.62915/0038-3686.2025.

Howes, Lydia, Elizabeth Frakes, Yingying Zhang, Donna Baluchi, Carmin Smoot, and Nena
Schvaneveldt. “Improving LibGuides at a Health Sciences Library: A Case Study.” Medical Reference
Services Quarterly 43, no. 2 (April 2, 2024): 130–51.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2024.2335138.
Lechtenberg, Urszula and Helene Gold. LOEX 2022: When All You Have Is a Hammer, Everything
Looks like a LibGuide: Strengths, Limitations, and Opportunities of the Teaching Tool. Conference
presentation recording, 2022. https://vimeo.com/721358576.

BEYOND THE MINIMUM 5

LECHTENBERG AND GOLD
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES DECEMBER 2024

ENDNOTES
1 Melina Sherman, “Accessibility in Libraries: A Landscape Review,” n.d., p. 10.
2
Sherman, “Accessibility in Libraries, p. 12.
3 “Introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act,” ADA.gov, accessed October 8, 2024,
https://www.ada.gov/topics/intro-to-ada/.
4“Web and Mobile App Accessibility Regulations,” EDUCAUSE Review, accessed June 14, 2024,
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2024/6/web-and-mobile-app-accessibility-regulations.
5 “LibGuides Community.” Accessed October 21, 2024. https://community.libguides.com/.
6 “Policy Matters: Primers and Insights,” Digital Accessibility Requirements for Online Learning,
August 22, 2024. https://upcea.edu/news/government-affairs/digital-accessibility-
requirements-for-online-learning/.
7 “Introduction to Understanding WCAG 2.0,” W3C, accessed October 8, 2024,
https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/intro.html.
8 Gabriela Castro Gessner, Adam Chandler, and Wendy Sue Wilcox, “Are You Reaching Your
Audience?” Reference Services Review 43, no. 3 (January 1, 2015): 491–508,
https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-02-2015-0010.
9 Erica DeFrain, Leslie Sult, and Nicole Pagowsky, “Effectiveness of Academic Library Research
Guides for Building College Students’ Information Literacy Skills: A Scoping Review,” UNL
Libraries: Faculty Publications, September 1, 2025.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/446.

BEYOND THE MINIMUM 6

LECHTENBERG AND GOLD
Copyright of Information Technology & Libraries is the property of American Library
Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a
listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print,
download, or email articles for individual use.