No Syracuse University student with disabilities should have to advocate or request for learning materials to be made accessible to them. These materials should already be provided to those students. The university should prioritize making the technology it uses accessible to every student on its campus.

In a report presented at the University Senate meeting on Wednesday, the Computing Services Committee recommended the university appoint a permanent Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator within the Information Technology and Services Department. This coordinator would develop campus-wide policies for ensuring technologies are universally accessible to all students. The year-long report had also found that roughly 11 percent of SU students and 6 percent of faculty are disabled.

As more professors post learning materials online, SU should work to ensure that students with disabilities are provided with the accessible technologies, which are tools that help people with disabilities access media that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

Students with disabilities should not have to go out of their way to have the same material their classmates have. If SU wants to be considered truly inclusive and accommodating to all students, it needs to take the recommendations of the Computing Services Committee seriously.

While a majority of all campus buildings are accessible for those with disabilities, getting to and from classrooms is only a fraction of the college experience. Students with disabilities might be able to attend class, but without accessible technology, they are missing out on classroom materials

Learning materials will not be going offline anytime soon. If anything, professors will likely continue to use Blackboard as a way to distribute readings and assignments. Every student at SU should have access to the same information and opportunities as their classmates. And they shouldn’t have to ask for it.

Correction: In the Sept. 13 article, “SU community says technology needs to be more accessible for those with disabilities,” and editorial board “Technology must accommodate disabilities,” the accessibility of Blackboard was misstated. The program now meets standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act and other required guidelines. The Daily Orange regrets this error.