Digital Accessibility Gaps of U.S. Higher Education Websites: Insights from a Multi-Institution Automated Accessibility Audit

Background: Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires higher education institutions in the United States to ensure their digital resources meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. However, persistent accessibility barriers continue to limit equitable access. Objective: To evaluate the accessibility of higher education websites in the United States, focusing on compliance with ADA and Section 508 standards. Methods: Websites from 20 universities (10 public, 10 private) were audited. For each institution, the homepage and Disability Services page were evaluated using the Accessible Name & Description Inspector (ANDI) across four modules: Graphics/Images, Links/Buttons, Headings, and Color Contrast—yielding 160 page–module scans. Total elements scanned, total alerts, and alert types were recorded, with screenshots for reproducibility. An “alert” refers to any automated flag generated by ANDI indicating a potential accessibility violation under WCAG 2.1 AA criteria; alerts vary in magnitude and require manual verification to confirm actual noncompliance. Results: Across 160 page–module scans, the audit identified 1,626 accessibility alerts, with Color Contrast accounting for 54% of all violations. Frequent issues included missing alternative text, link elements without accessible names, ambiguous link text, and numerous cases requiring manual color-contrast checks. Homepages generally exhibited more alerts than Disability Services pages, and public and private institutions showed broadly similar overall alert frequencies. All differences reported are descriptive and not the result of inferential statistical testing. Conclusions: Accessibility gaps remain prevalent in U.S. higher education websites, even on pages designed to serve disabled users. Regular automated audits using tools like ANDI—combined with governance, template-level fixes, and content-authoring practices—can help institutions identify and remediate issues, improving compliance and equitable digital access.