Accessibility Guidelines | UTIA Brand Standards

What is accessibility and why is it important?

Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web as well as contribute to the Web. Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech and visual.

Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, for example:

people using mobile phones, smart watches, smart TVs, and other devices with small screens, different input modes, etc.
older people with changing abilities due to ageing
people with “temporary disabilities” such as a broken arm or lost glasses
people with “situational limitations” such as in bright sunlight or in an environment where they cannot listen to audio
people using a slow Internet connection, or who have limited or expensive bandwidth

Source: “What is Accessibility?” by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative

Liability & Compliance

Accessibility is also a legal issue. As a higher education institution, we must comply with all applicable laws including The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Sections 504 and 508).

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide an international set of guidelines. They are developed by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), the governing body of the web.

When it comes to accessibility, the Marketing and Communications (M&C) and the Information Technology Services (ITS) departments strive to meet at least AA compliance from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG.

Content owners and managers must adhere to these policies when it comes to accessibility of their website:

The Institute’s approved theme for websites meet these standards and policies. Any UTIA-related websites not created within this theme are required to meet the above standards and policies. If such sites do not meet these standards and policies, the potential for legal action is high.

Specific areas to focus on when creating and managing content for any UTIA-related website to ensure the content is available for all visitors to access, include the following (links provided to more explanation and resources):

Link Descriptive Text: How can content owners help visitors that use screen readers understand the context of a hyperlink?
Image Alt Texts: How can we ensure that our visitors with vision issues know what an image contains?
Color: How can we make the use of colors on a webpage easier for our visitors to see the content?
External Links: How can we let our visitors know that a link is an external link, a PDF, a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet?
PDFs: How we can provide content within PDFs that is accessible to our visitors?
Graphics: How can we convey our message by using graphics that all visitors can access?
Podcasts: How can we provide all our visitors the content within a podcast?
Videos: How can we provide all our visitors the ability to access content presented in a video?

Source: UTIA WordPress Guide