Following digital accessibility best practices enables people in our UW–Madison community to independently and fully participate in learning, teaching and university life through our technology. It also makes our technology more usable overall, for everyone.
In alignment with the university’s new Digital Accessibility Policy, DoIT’s Center for User Experience (CUE) is building a network of digital accessibility liaisons to provide consultation and guidance for their units. The digital accessibility liaisons will be the primary points of contact for digital accessibility in their respective units in accordance with the new policy, effective July 1, 2023.
The policy implementation team is currently reaching out to units across campus to ask them to identify a liaison. With manager approval, the liaison will serve their unit in understanding and supporting the policy.
Interested in being a champion for digital accessibility?
If you would like to be a digital accessibility liaison, please seek your manager’s approval and then fill out the registration form. The contact information you submit on this form will be available in the public liaison directory.
Liaisons will partner with CUE when they have a digital accessibility need or when a barrier is identified. Liaisons have access to training, consultation and a community of practice to support one another and help guide their work.
Get acquainted with the digital accessibility policy
UW–Madison approved the new Digital Accessibility Policy in November 2021 to update the web accessibility policy established in 2001, which was outdated and limited in scope. The new policy better aligns with UW–Madison and Universities of Wisconsin policies that protect people with disabilities against discrimination and honors our institutional statement on diversity.
The policy establishes practices and requirements to ensure we meet the university’s obligations to nondiscrimination under state and federal regulations. It covers information, content, and services used and delivered through the use of information and communications technology, such as:
- Websites
- Electronic documents (Word and Google documents, PDFs, PowerPoint files, etc.)
- Audio
- Video
- Web and mobile applications
- Software, university-provided IT hardware, and other IT devices that are a part of the user experience
The policy will roll out in a phased, multi-year approach. The first phase of work, spanning July 2023 through June 2024, will focus on document accessibility. Please review this KnowledgeBase article for more information on the phases of the implementation plan and some helpful conformance requirements for prioritizing what you work on first.
How to stay informed
For more information about the digital accessibility policy, the liaison network, and to access additional resources, please visit Digital accessibility @ UW–Madison. Follow the core project team’s policy implementation activities on the project implementation page.