Web and digital accessibility

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.

• According to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of disability.
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities - many states have adopted similar rules.

Requirements

• Include required language in the website's footer:
  • UA notice of nondiscrimination:
    The University of Alaska is an AA/EO employer and educational institution and prohibits illegal discrimination against any individual: Learn more about UA's notice of nondiscrimination.

  • UA notice of web accessibility:
    UA is committed to providing accessible websites. Learn more about UA’s notice of web accessibility.

• Meet a minimum of WCAG2AA accessibility compliance.
  • You can scan your website for errors using a variety of tools for checking web accessibility.
  • Review  web accessibility training.
  • Content hosted on third-party resources/portals, as well as non-HTML content published on our website such as videos, forms, documents and  should also be accessible.
• Have internal written protocols for maintenance and ensuring accessibility standards are met. Internal protocols should include:
  • Designated individual (admin) responsible for the account.
  • How to access the website or social media platform if the designated individual is not available.
  • Schedule for updating contact and log-in information.
  • Schedule for accessibility checks (weekly, monthly, quarterly).
  • Process for remediating inaccessible items.
  • Tool(s) used for accessibility assessment (Modern Campus CMS Page Check, WAVE, etc.).

See specific MAU requirements:

Training

More resources

If you need assistance resolving an accessibility error on your website, contact the NTS Web Services team at ua-oit-web@alaska.edu