How to Make Your Learning Management Systems Accessible: A Five-Step Roadmap

In higher education, accessibility efforts often focus on public-facing websites, while the platforms that power day-to-day learning, like Learning Management Systems (LMS), get far less attention. But the accessibility of your LMS—and the content within it—is just as critical.

However, ensuring LMS accessibility can be challenging. Chances are, your LMS is a third-party platform that’s built and maintained by a vendor, meaning you have limited control over fixing accessibility barriers. Even so, you may still be accountable—both legally, and to your students—to provide an inclusive user experience.

But what exactly are your legal responsibilities when it comes to LMS accessibility? And how can you navigate this complex situation to meet compliance requirements and support every learner?

In this blog, we’ll discuss the connection between LMS accessibility and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. We’ll also share practical steps you can take to reduce risk and create a more inclusive digital learning environment for everyone.

LMS accessibility and ADA Title II compliance: Understanding your obligations

For public institutions, LMS accessibility isn’t optional; it’s a legal requirement under ADA Title II. That’s because of a 2024 rule from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that mandates that all U.S. state and local government entities provide accessible web and mobile experiences.

That includes experiences delivered through your LMS. Whether the content is created in-house or sourced from third-party tools, your LMS and everything in it must be accessible to all users—students, faculty, and staff alike.

This means institutions need to approach LMS accessibility on two primary levels:

1. Platform-level conformance: Ensuring the LMS platform itself meets accessibility standards. While your teams are unlikely to have direct control over issues in a third-party tool, you can prioritize working with vendors that are committed to accessibility and provide feedback on barriers.
2. Content-level accessibility: Ensuring the content that is housed in your LMS is accessible. Your internal teams are directly responsible for this.

Want a deeper dive? Access our on-demand webinar for a roadmap to ADA Title II compliance in higher ed.

Five steps to improve LMS and course content accessibility

At first, making your LMS accessible can feel daunting—but with the right strategy, your institution can achieve meaningful progress quickly and sustain it over time. If you’re unsure where to begin, these six steps offer a clear path forward to improving LMS accessibility.

1. Understand your vendor’s role in LMS accessibility.

Start by reaching out to your LMS provider to understand your LMS’s current accessibility status. Request their most recent VPAT® (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) or accessibility conformance report (ACR). These documents outline how well the software conforms to established standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Obtaining the report is only the first step. We recommend that institutions also ask specific questions such as:

• Which version of WCAG does the platform currently support (e.g., 2.1 or 2.2)?
• What accessibility features are built into the platform (e.g., keyboard navigation, text resizing, screen reader compatibility)?
• Are there any known accessibility limitations or open issues?
• What is your roadmap for improving accessibility in future releases?
• Who on your team is responsible for accessibility, and how can we reach them with issues? (This contact will be key, as your relationship with the vendor should be ongoing and collaborative.)

Institutions that manage this process well typically have a member of staff (often in IT, instructional design, or disability services, or a dedicated accessibility lead) who is confident reviewing VPATs and asking the right follow-up questions.

2. Identify the accessibility status of your digital resources

Start by auditing a sample of course materials across high-enrollment or high-risk courses. Focus on the content that students interact with most and work outward from there. Document barriers like missing alt text, poor contrast, inaccessible PDFs, or lack of heading structure, that will need to be addressed.

At this stage, it’s also helpful to equip faculty, staff, and instructional designers with tools they can use to address accessibility issues as they create content, streamlining the process and increasing the reach of your efforts, without overextending your teams.

If your institution doesn’t yet have the resources or in-house expertise to support this work, consider partnering with an accessibility expert. External support can help you quickly assess current gaps, upskill your teams, and put scalable practices in place.

3. Use automated tools to improve accessibility—fast

Bringing your LMS and course materials into full conformance with accessibility standards can take time. However, automated remediation tools offer a practical way to make immediate improvements to users’ online experience, while your institution works through more complex, manual fixes.

These tools automatically scan for and correct many common issues (such as missing alt text, improper heading structure, and low-contrast elements) in real time, quickly helping to reduce barriers for students and other users.

4. Invest in manual testing for your LMS and course content

Automated tools are great for identifying common accessibility issues, but they aren’t yet capable of catching everything. That’s why manual accessibility testing is essential to ensure your LMS and the content within it are compliant.

Manual evaluations uncover rarer and more complex issues that automated tools often miss. To ensure testing is thorough and accurate, it’s wise to partner with a trusted accessibility expert. The right partner will bring technical analysis and real-world user insight, providing your teams with actionable guidance as they improve the accessibility of your LMS content.

5. Share accessibility findings with your LMS vendor

Institutions that see the greatest long-term accessibility success treat their LMS vendors as active partners in accessibility. Sharing your testing results and accessibility insights will help your vendor understand how their platform performs in real-world academic settings, beyond what their internal testing may reveal. In return, your institution will benefit from faster issue resolution, better support, and more targeted product improvements.

Some issues you identify may point to underlying platform limitations. Flagging these early allows your vendor to address them—not only enhancing the experience for your users but strengthening the platform for their wider customer base. It’s a mutually beneficial process that supports continuous improvement and shared accountability.

Navigate LMS accessibility with an expert partner

Managing the accessibility of LMS and other third-party tools requires technical know-how, legal awareness, and a clear roadmap for action.

With more than 25 years of experience, Level Access can provide you with the technology and expertise to remove and prevent barriers across all your institution’s digital touchpoints—including your LMS and course content.

Our end-to-end solution is built around the three core pillars of effective accessibility programs—Audit & Test, Build & Fix, and Governance & Reporting—to help every institution achieve and sustain compliance.

To learn more about how we can support you in building a more accessible digital learning environment, schedule a call with our team.