Clicking in the Dark: Are Student Financial Aid Websites Accessible for Students with Disabilities?

Abstract

The United States (US.) Access Board, a branch of the federal government responsible for advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities into U.S. society, recently amended Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On January 18th, 2018, the final Section 508 amendment required all Title IV institutions of higher education in the United States to conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 20 (WCAG) at the Level-A and Level-AA thresholds. As students with disabilities are often minoritized from the U.S. higher education system, this study explored the web accessibility of institutional.edu financial aid websites (n=450) to learn if these websites were accessible for students with disabilities after the January 2018 mandate. Results suggest the average financial aid website included nearly 40 web accessibility errors, with only 16% websites being accessible enough for students with disabilities to navigate from the landing page to the federal student aid application instructions webpage. Implications for research and practice are addressed.