Introduction

Compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines may seem, at first, like a very difficult task. However, with a few changes in habits and an understanding of how accessibility practices work, your unit can ensure that the content you create is easily accessible by anyone.  

This toolkit is designed to help you plan your unit for digital accessibility.

Of course, you can use this page to get started, or download this page and the accompanying Accessibility Plan Template using the buttons below.

Download the Digital Accessibility Toolkit

 

 

What is Compliance?

WCAG Summary

Since the mid-90s, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has applied the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to 鈥渨ebsites of covered entities鈥�. At the time, there were many organizations publishing guidelines for digital accessibility. Over time, however, the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), a non-profit international community devoted to making the internet accessible to people with disabilities, developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which has become the most common standard for web accessibility. In April of 2024, the DOJ published Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Agencies, which finally established WCAG 2.1 level AA as the official standard for digital accessibility.

To learn more about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, specifically how it is organized and what we mean by 鈥渓evel AA,鈥� please visit DLI鈥檚 WCAG Summary page.  

Basic Four

Even a cursory look at WCAG will reveal that it is a very technical document with many layers. In fact, there are many pieces of WCAG addressed within the applications we use or the settings that UITS administrators establish for us that typical content creators may never need to consider.  

For that reason, we recommend thinking of WCAG and digital accessibility as a type of grammar. It is a set of habits we develop to help us consider when we write a piece of text or create a piece of media, ensuring that content can be accessed by someone with limited vision, hearing, or movement and is optimized for people who use assistive technology to access the web. We鈥檝e narrowed all these habits into a set of practices we call the Basic Four of Accessibility. The Basic Four website has more detail, but the Basic Four can be summarized like this:

  1. Document Structure: 鈥淒ocuments鈥� here refers to many types of content from HTML pages (the website) to Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, etc. It infers many elements of documents including:
    1. Proper Semantic (Heading) Structure: This allows non-sighted readers to browse content using headings the same way a sighted reader does.
    2. Use of List Styles: Properly formatted lists are used for sequences or bullets.
    3. Table Structure: Proper table headings are used so that assistive technology can provide proper context for data in the table.
    4. Proper Color Contrast: Use of different colors of text may make reading more difficult for people who cannot differentiate between colors.
    5. Descriptive Links: Full URLs are typically ignored by sighted readers but can be tedious for someone listening to a document using assistive technology.
  2. Alternative Text: Descriptive text written for images that tell a reader who cannot see the image what they need to know about it. 
  3. Media Accessibility: Closed captioning, audio descriptions, and transcripts ensure access to our video and audio content.
  4. Accessible Third-Party Applications: When working with or acquiring an application or using a resource from another institution, it is important to be able to tell whether that application or resource is compliant.

Accessibility Roles

The Academic Web Accessibility team is recommending that any unit, whether academic or non-academic, consider their unit members to fall into four categories when it comes to accessibility responsibilities.

  1. Non-Content Creators: There may be people in your unit who never write, create, or curate content that will be published publicly or disseminated to the 食色视频 community. While it is helpful for everyone to know about digital accessibility, it is far less urgent for them.
  2. Content Creators: This term is a wide one. It includes anyone who writes, creates, or curates digital content鈥攖ext, documents, or media鈥攖hat will end up being published on the website, in a course, or disseminated to the 食色视频 community. 
  3. Unit Accessibility Champion: We recommend that every unit, whether academic or non-academic and depending on the size, establish one or multiple 鈥淎ccessibility Champions鈥�.  An Accessibility Champion will have taken some official training and can be a guide, answer questions, help review content before it is published, and know where to turn for help when the unit runs into accessibility challenges.
    1. NOTE: If your unit has a person who manages your public website, it is recommended they be a Unit Accessibility Champion.
  4. Unit Administrators: While an administrator may not create and/or publish content themselves, there are helpful pieces for an administrator to know before making decisions that may impact accessibility.

What Content Creators--and All Roles--Should Know

We recommend that Content Creators in your unit:

  1. Review the module.
  2. Review the Basic Four of Accessibility site.
  3. Utilize the Creating Accessible Content site, a collection of resources showing how to use common office tools to ensure that your content is accessible.
  4. Know where to go to get self-paced training resources.

What Your Unit Accessibility Champion (UAC) Should Know

Academic UACs

For academic Unit Accessibility Champions, we recommend:

  1. Taking the (especially for faculty). This is a self-paced, asynchronous, three-week workshop devoted to training for accessibility on the academic side. It is available to faculty, staff, and student workers.
  2. Using the AWA Course Accessibility Checklist to review your course content.
  3. Learning about Universal Design for Learning:
    1. Review our UDL Page.
    2. Review the UDL in Practice page.
    3. Take the UDL Experience workshop.

Non-Academic UACs

For non-academic Unit Accessibility Champions or those who work in academic units but whose content is published or circulated outside of the classroom, we recommend:

  1. The workshop. This is a self-paced, asynchronous, three-week workshop devoted to training for accessibility. It is available to staff and student workers.

Both UACs

For all Unit Accessibility Champions, we recommend:

  1. The self-paced module.
  2. The self-paced module.

What Unit Administrators Should Know

Because Unit Administrators make decisions which may impact accessibility efforts, these are our recommendations:

  1. Review the DOJ Rule page.
  2. When considering a technology acquisition or reviewing current technologies used by your unit:
    1. Learn about Accessibility Statements:
      1. View the .
    2. Learn about Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs):
      1. View the .
    3. Review both on the Review the Accessibility Statements and VPATs page.
  3. Download and review the additional Accessibility Plan Template document. Employees who take the Accessible Web Essentials training are encouraged to use this to help their unit meet WCAG compliance requirements.

Where to Get Help

For academic units, please contact the Instructional Designer for your college using the DLI form.

For non-academic units, reach out to the AWA Team, and our unit will direct you to the right resources to help!