Last updated June 5, 2023
Who is responsible for making digital content accessible?
We all are responsible for making digital content accessible. Accessibility is a shared university responsibility. The new digital accessibility policy applies to all UW–Madison schools, colleges, divisions, and units. The owner of a digital resource or technology is responsible for making that content or technology accessible per the standards included with the new policy. Practicing digital accessibility as part of your regular work processes and operational decisions creates a more usable, inclusive digital environment for everyone.
What do I need to do?
With the support of the Center for User Experience, your responsibilities will be to:
Incorporate accessibility practices
Incorporate accessibility practices into your everyday business processes and decisions.
Digital accessibility liaisons
Assign one or more digital accessibility liaisons within your unit.
Follow the implementation phases
Following the implementation phases document known accessibility barriers in high-priority resources and technology, always having a point person in case someone needs an accommodation.
Ensure third-party technology standards
Get resources for working with vendors to ensure third-party technology meets the policy standards. Those responsible for which vendor products to procure consider accessibility early as one of the criteria for acquisition.
Develop skills and access resources
To support everyone in practicing digital accessibility, a variety of resources and guidance are available — whether you’re designing HTML (including mass emails), Google, Microsoft, or PDF documents.
Document design principles
Basic steps for document accessibility
How to create accessible documents
Evaluations & Training
Digital accessibility consulting
Digital accessibility evaluations
Digital accessibility training
Digital accessibility liaisons: Building a network of local point people
To make implementation easier in a large organization, the policy establishes a network of digital accessibility liaisons. The Center for User Experience will communicate more about the digital accessibility liaison designation process and how to support this community.
What will a digital accessibility liaison do?
At a minimum, liaisons will:
- Receive information about digital accessibility, including training
- Share information broadly with their colleagues
- Communicate with the Center for User Experience about digital accessibility barriers and evaluation needs, and to access support
Learn more about the digital accessibility liaison network.
Digital Accessibility Liaison Network timeline
High-level milestones
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Begin identifying and designating your unit’s Digital Accessibility Liaison(s).
Share designee’s name and contact information with the Center for User Experience.
- Fall 2022-Spring 2023: Begin digital accessibility liaison search – Begin identifying and designating your unit’s digital accessibility liaison(s).
- By July 2023: Share liaison info – Share designee’s name and contact information with the Center for User Experience.
When does my digital content need to be accessible?
The implementation plan for this policy is phased to focus on one digital resource category at a time. With this plan, we can prioritize and make progress as a community towards a more accessible digital campus.
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2022-2023: Preparation
- The Center for User Experience will support university partners to establish the Digital Accessibility Liaison network by creating support and community for the network. When Digital Accessibility Liaisons have been identified, sign them up using our liaison registration form. The Center for User Experience will begin communicating with them about training and resources.
- The Center for User Experience will work with central procurement and unit procurement teams to integrate accessibility requirements and contract language into the purchasing process.
- The Procure accessible technology guide has information about:
- Request for Proposal (RFP)/Request for Bid (RFB) requirements to help procurement teams identify what accessibility considerations should be included in the procurement process and evaluation
- Approved language clarifying the vendor’s responsibilities for digital accessibility to add to contracts
July 1, 2023: Policy goes into effect
- The policy, implementation plan, and standards take effect July 1, 2023.
- Schools, colleges, units, and divisions share their Digital Accessibility Liaison designee(s) with the Center for User Experience by July 1, 2023.
2023-2024: Digital documents
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on documents (including but not limited to Word documents, PDF documents, and Google Docs)
- Not all content will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority content per the policy standards is the priority
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create accessible documents and how to fix accessibility barriers
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our document creation processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Get started or learn more about digital document accessibility
2024-2025: Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Technology Integrations (LTI)
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on Learning Management Systems (LMS) (Canvas), and Learning Technology Integrations (LTI) (Canvas LTIs used in courses)
- Not all content will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority content is the priority. This includes General Education courses per the policy standards.
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create accessible Canvas content and how to procure and work with vendors to fix accessibility barriers in Canvas and Canvas LTIs
- Note that you should use the UDOIT Accessibility Checker in Canvas when creating or reviewing content
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our Canvas content creation processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Get started or learn more about Learning Management Systems accessibility
- Accessible online course materials guide
- UDOIT accessibility checker for Canvas course content
2025-2026: Video and audio content (multimedia)
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on video and audio content
- Not all content will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority content per the policy standards is the priority
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create and procure accessible video and audio content
- The university has several negotiated contracts with third-party captioning and transcription vendors available to you
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our video and audio creation processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Get started or learn more video, audio, and multimedia content accessibility
2026-2027: Websites
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on website accessibility
- Not all websites will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority websites per the policy standards is the priority
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create and procure accessible websites
- If you are using the UW WordPress Theme, you will have a head start on accessibility, but you may find that your website has barriers such as missing image alt text, disordered heading structure (h1, h2, h3, etc.), and others to fix
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our website creation processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Get started or learn more about website accessibility
2027-2028: Web apps
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on web apps
- Not all web apps will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority apps per the policy standards is the priority
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create and procure accessible web apps
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our web app creation processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Get started or learn more about web app accessibility
2028-2029: Mobile apps
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on mobile apps
- Not all mobile apps will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority apps per the policy standards is the priority
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create and procure accessible mobile apps
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our mobile app creation and procurement processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Get started or learn more about mobile app accessibility
2029-2030: Local software
- The Center for User Experience and university stakeholders will focus on local software
- Not all local software will need to be accessible immediately; high-priority software per the policy standards is the priority
- You will have access to targeted training and support on how to create and procure accessible local software
- The goal: Integrate accessibility practices into our local software creation and procurement processes, fix existing high-priority content, document accessibility barriers, and have a plan to provide people with access
Which digital resources and technologies are priority?
High-priority digital resources and technology are those that are used by a large number of people or are essential to people’s access to work and study.
Removing accessibility barriers in these resources is critical to an inclusive experience and compliance with federal and state laws.
In each phase of the implementation plan, you should give priority to the the specific events, tools, and content listed in the conformance table in the policy standards.
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When is conformance required?
Conformance to the policy is required for digital resources and technology that are:
- Reported to have a verified barrier by a user
- Used as an enterprise or university-wide technology (e.g., Office 365, Course Search and Enroll, ShopUW+)
- Used at or for university events (in person or virtual) with 20,000 or more attendees
- A public-facing website
- Used in undergraduate General Education Requirement courses
- Procured via Request for Proposal or Request for Bid
- Used at the following university community events: Convocation, Go Big Read, Diversity Forum, Commencement
When is conformance recommended?
Conformance to the policy is recommended for digital resources and technology that are:
- Used by 1,000 or more users annually
Why is digital accessibility important?
According to the CDC one in four adults in the United States lives with a disability.
Digital accessibility ensures that many in our community can independently and fully participate in learning, teaching, and university life through our technology. It also makes our technology more usable overall, for everyone.
Explore more about your role in creating an accessible and inclusive university.
Accommodation vs. accessibility
Accommodations
You may be familiar with the accommodations process at UW–Madison. Accommodations provide access, but they may result in a different experience for the disabled individual (or individual with a disability). For example, an accommodation may require another person’s assistance to complete a task versus doing the task independently and privately.
Accessibility
Accessibility is proactive instead of reactive, making it possible for a person with a disability to perform their work and study independently just like their abled‑bodied peers.
More resources on disability
What does it mean to have accessible digital content?
The Digital Accessibility Standards measure digital accessibility by two complementary standards: functional accessibility and technical accessibility.
Functional accessibility
The determining factor of whether a digital resource or information technology is accessible is based on whether an individual with a disability can use it to achieve the same goals or outcomes, as independently (without accommodation or assistance from another individual) and privately as someone without a disability.
Technical accessibility
The Digital Accessibility Policy points to:
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, an internationally developed and shared set of standards
- The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UUAG) for readers and players including but not limited to browsers, media players, e-readers, and browser extensions
Is my digital content or technology accessible?
Evaluating your digital content or technology to identify and document barriers is critical to progressively making it more accessible.
Focus on progress, not perfection
No technology is ever “fully accessible.” That’s why it is important to think about accessibility as an ongoing practice.
No two people with the same disability are alike or affected in the exact same way by their disability, thus people using your technology or digital content all have unique variances that determine how usable a piece of technology is for them as an individual.
If someone tells you they are still experiencing a barrier even if your technology meets the standards, you must investigate and fix that barrier and, until fixed, you will need to provide the person a reasonable accommodation.
Digital accessibility evaluation resources
Testing your digital resources is the best way to know how accessible your digital content or product is for people with disabilities.
Testing manually with assistive technology to evaluate functional accessibility is the most reliable way to make sure your digital resource or technology is accessible.
You can also self-evaluate if your digital resource is accessible initially by using an automated testing tool for a first-glance overview of accessibility barriers that may exist in your content.
When barriers are found, contact the Center for User Experience to be sure that there is a current evaluation and documentation about your digital resource.
Web accessibility testing tools
Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE)
Website crawling tool
Sa11y
Page by page testing
WebAIM WAVE
Page by page testing
Video & audio accessibility guidance
Live captioning & sign language interpreting
Post-production captions & transcripts for pre-recorded events
Get help with accessibility
Resources to get assistance with accessibility at UW–Madison.