edX Settles With Justice Dept. Over Disability-Law Compliance

The U.S. Justice Department has reached a settlement with edX, the prominent MOOC provider, to bring it into compliance with federal antidiscrimination laws.

According to the terms of the agreement, edX will make its website and learning-management system fully accessible to the disabled within 18 months; ensure that the system used to create online courses is also accessible within 18 months; and create two new positions to oversee accessibility, among other things. As part of the agreement, edX denied it was not in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which created edX in 2012, were sued in February by the National Association of the Deaf, which said the colleges’ online materials did not provide closed captioning, among other services.

The changes were prompted by a “compliance review” by the Justice Department, the settlement states.

For more, see this Chronicle article.