UC Berkeley Deleting Online Content to Comply with Accessibility Orders

[Update] The online site LBRY has irrevocably mirrored the content removed from the  UC Berkeley site. While already available from a command line, the content will be available to the public in April.

On 15 March, the University of California (UC), Berkeley, will begin restricting access to more than 20,000 audio and video files from its free access to course content. In a statement on March 1, UC Berkeley vice chancellor explained the process and reasoning to the campus community, noting compliance with a US Department of Justice (DoJ) finding that the content must meet higher accessibility standards as a condition of remaining publicly available. The cost of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act to enable the university to continue to make these free resources publicly available is prohibitive, she said. According to Inside Higher Ed, some other universities indicated that they have no plans to follow suit.

TheBlaze attributed the case to government over-regulation, and a blog post Department of Justice: If Disabled People Can’t Use Berkeley’s Free Online Courses, No One Can by Robby Soave of Reason criticises the DoJ decision.