Why Archiving is Critical to Your WCAG Compliance Strategy: A Lesson from the College of Southern Nevada

[JasonSimmons]

Why Archiving is Critical to Your WCAG Compliance Strategy: A Lesson from the College of Southern Nevada

The recent Department of Justice (DOJ) ruling requiring WCAG 2.1 AA compliance by April 2026 has ignited a sense of urgency across higher education. Institutions are now racing to assess the accessibility of their digital content, particularly within their learning management systems (LMS). What many institutions are quickly realizing, however, is that the volume of historical content accumulated over the years makes this task nearly impossible without a clear, cost-effective strategy.

One solution often overlooked—but essential—is Canvas Archiving powered by K16 Solutions.

The Compliance Burden: Too Much Content, Too Little Time

Institutions like the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) have been at the forefront of recognizing the challenge. CSN has more than 158,000 legacy courses stored in their Canvas LMS, many of which date back to 2013. As Dr. Nancy Webb, Senior Analyst at CSN, shared during a recent EDUCAUSE Industry Insights webinar, the task of remediating every single course for accessibility would require an estimated 74,000 labor hours and cost more than $26 million. Not only is that unsustainable—it’s unnecessary.

The DOJ ruling does not require institutions to make archived content accessible. This creates a clear pathway to reduce the scope of remediation and focus only on active and public-facing course materials.

How Archiving Fast-Tracks Accessibility Compliance

By partnering with K16 Solutions, CSN developed a strategy to archive more than 120,000 of their historical courses, reducing the number of courses needing remediation by over 75%. This simple action allowed the institution to shrink their compliance workload significantly, cutting their anticipated costs from $26 million to just over $6 million—a nearly $20 million savings (check out the calculator to determine how much you can save by archiving).

But this isn’t just about dollars and hours. It’s about protecting student data, improving faculty usability, and maintaining control over content without compromising on compliance.

More Than a Cost-Saving Measure—A Data Governance Strategy

Archiving isn't a temporary fix; it's a long-term data governance strategy. By moving non-active courses to a secure, integrated Canvas Archive environment, institutions can:

• Mitigate compliance risk: Archived courses are exempt from WCAG remediation requirements.
  
  
• Secure sensitive student data: Reducing the number of active courses helps limit unnecessary exposure of PII.
  
  
• Enhance usability for faculty and staff: A clean, streamlined LMS improves navigation and reduces confusion.
  
  

Dr. Webb said it best during the webinar: "The WCAG mandate really persuaded our administration to move forward with archiving and utilize K16 Solutions as a vendor. It was the deciding factor."

Moving Forward: A Best Practice for Every Institution

If your institution is struggling with the enormity of WCAG remediation, you’re not alone. Many colleges and universities—large and small—are grappling with how to comply without overwhelming their faculty, staff, and budgets.

The truth is, the fastest, safest, and most cost-effective way to meet WCAG requirements isn’t to remediate everything—it’s to archive what doesn’t need to be public-facing anymore.

That’s what K16 Solutions helps you do.

If you're ready to turn your accessibility challenge into a data governance win, talk to us. Let us help you reduce your compliance risk, save money, and build a sustainable, long-term content management strategy.