Accessibility is the ability for students and staff to access and effectively use Electronic Information Technology (EIT), which includes all web pages, electronic documents and multimedia.
Why does UF need an accessibility policy?
As you may know, there are already federal and state laws that require accessibility for government and educational institutions. The UF committee working on the draft policy is setting the standards for how and when those accessibility should be implemented by members of the university community. For students this could make the difference between being able to pass a courses or being able to participate in classes without assistance. For instructors, this makes it easier to reach all of their students.
The current draft of the policy does the following :
- Establishes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as the minimum accessibility standard
- Sets a timeline for compliance for all public-facing University web pages.
- Sets a timeline for compliance for all web pages and applications that require a login.
- Establishes a requirement for evaluating the accessibility of software during procurement.
What can I do to make my course accessible?
There are detailed WCAG checklists available from sites like WebAIM and Wuhcag.
Here are five things that you can do now to make your content more accessible:
- Provide alternative text or captions for all images..
- Ensure that any videos have captions.
- Make sure that everything can be done using a keyboard. (Example: Use the Tab key to navigate links without a mouse.)
- Avoid using color combinations that are low contrast (Example: Don’t use light text on a light background).
What other resources are available?
UF has started the process of providing tools for converting documents and checking web pages. Liberal Arts and Sciences also has started to make the necessary updates that will ensure that web templates and content for the college are accessible.
For updates about the policy status or more resources available to faculty and students, visit Accessible UF.