Consortial Collaboration for ADA Title II Compliance

Texas Digital Library’s Accessibility Working Groups

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23974/ijol.2026.vol11.2.600

Abstract

In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a new rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring all state and local government web content and mobile applications to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Levels A and AA by April 2026.[1] The Texas Digital Library (TDL)—a member-governed consortium supporting a shared digital infrastructure for scholarly communication across 28 higher-education institutions—mobilized its community to respond collaboratively to these accessibility mandates. Through its user‑driven working groups, TDL launched coordinated accessibility initiatives across key platforms, including Open Journal Systems (OJS), Vireo (electronic theses and dissertations), and institutional repositories. This article traces the development of those efforts, highlighting the creation of toolkits, training materials, and shared policy guidance that reduce duplication of labor and empower member libraries to meet legal requirements and ethical commitments to digital inclusion. The TDL model illustrates how consortial collaboration strengthens institutional capacity and fosters a culture of accessibility across diverse scholarly publishing environments.

[1] As of April, 2026, the Department of Justice issued an Interim Final Rule tentatively extending the compliance deadline by one year (Department of Justice, 2026).

 

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Author Biographies

  • Alexa Hight, Texas State University, Texas State University

    Alexa Hight is the Assistant Director for Research and Data Services at Texas State University Libraries.

  • Susan Hoover, University of Houston

    Susan Hoover is an Assistant Librarian and Metadata Services Coordinator in the University of Houston Libraries. In their previous career they were a software engineer. Their research interests include accessibility and automation.

  • Shannon Kipphut-Smith, Rice University

    Shannon Kipphut-Smith is Senior Scholarly Communication Librarian at Fondren Library, Rice University. She manages Rice’s faculty open access policy and collaborates with groups across campus to address a number of diverse scholarly communications issues, including copyright and author rights, new publishing models, and increasing the visibility of research.

  • Jeanne Hoover, East Carolina University

    Jeanne Hoover is the Head of Scholarly Communication at East Carolina University. She leads the Scholarly Communication team in supporting faculty and student scholarly communication needs on campus. In this role, she helps support the Graduate School and Honors College with the Vireo system for theses, dissertations, and projects. 

References

Baggett, M., Hayward, E., Coons, M.K., Lyons, T., Park, K., Zeng, X. (2026). Repository Content Accessibility Toolkit. Texas Digital Library Wiki. https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DIGREP/pages/4607836162/Repository+Content+Accessibility+Toolkit

Baggett, M., Hight, A., Hoover, S., McCrary, M., & Park, K. (2025a, September 25). OJS accessibility for journal managers and editors [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oep4YvXs2n8

Baggett, M., Hight, A., Hoover, S., McCrary, M., & Park, K. (2025b). Web accessibility toolkit: Open access journals. Texas Digital Library Wiki. https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OAJ/pages/4161241090/Web+Accessibility+Toolkit+Open+Access+Journals

Department of Justice. (2026). Extension of compliance dates for nondiscrimination on the basis of disability; Accessibility of web information and services of State and local government entities, 91 Federal Register 20902–20909 (April 20, 2026). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/04/20/2026-07663/extension-of-compliance-dates-for-nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-disability-accessibility-of-web

Mumma, C.C. (2026a). Vireo Accessibility.Texas Digital Library Wiki. https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/x/BQAAoQ

Mumma, C.C. (2026b). Vireo Task Force on Accessibility Resources. Texas Digital Library Wiki. https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/x/BwDh5w

Park, K. (2025). Web Accessibility Overview. Texas Digital Library Wiki. https://texasdigitallibrary.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OAJ/pages/4161142834/Web+Accessibility+Overview

Texas Digital Library. (n.d.). About TDL. https://www.tdl.org/about-tdl/

Waugh, L., Lyon, C., Shelton, A., Park, K., Hicks, W., & Lindsey, N. (2020). Accessibility in institutional repositories. (Report 1). https://hdl.handle.net/10877/12389

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Published

2026-06-30

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2026): Special Issue on Library Web Accessibility

Section

Featured Articles

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How to Cite

Consortial Collaboration for ADA Title II Compliance: Texas Digital Library’s Accessibility Working Groups. (2026). International Journal of Librarianship, 11(2), 61-70. https://doi.org/10.23974/ijol.2026.vol11.2.600