As we face increased reliance on remote learning, we need to ensure accessibility of our shared content. Our team is ready to provide accessibility guidance and remediation support for documents and other media used in your teaching. To access this expanded service, use our traditional ticketing system or email us to discuss your needs.
The state of WA has issued new policy (Policy 188 – Accessibility). This policy establishes the expectation for state agencies that people with disabilities have access to and use of information and data and be provided access to the same services and content that is available to persons without disabilities unless providing direct access is not possible due to technical or legal limitations. There are federal policies that mirror the state policy. Designing your digital tools and resources with accessibility in mind is best practice and a win for everyone.
What should I do?
A good first step would be an environmental scan. Which vendors, sites and tools do you use? Are they compliant? Once that’s completed, work to establish guidelines around accessibility and educate your teams. You may need to modify your style guides, purchasing requirements and/or employee handbooks. Including those responsible for publishing content, purchasing or developing tools are key in working towards accessibility.
Where can I learn more?
- Accessible Technology at the UW
- WA State Policy Statement
- Minimum level of compliance for accessibility with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
Videos
See if you qualify for the UW Free Captioning Project here.
MS Office Documents
Microsoft Office provides and accessibility checker for Office documents (.docx, pptx, .xlsx).
UW has prepared several resources to help you writing accessible documents:
Adobe Acrobat Pro provides an accessibility checker for PDF documents. Learn more about it here.
UW Accessibility has also prepared some guidelines:
- Exporting accessible PDF from a Word document
- Fixing PDF documents for accessibility
- Accessible PDF from scanned documents
- UW Document Conversion Service (free)
Webpages
Webpages can be checked with the WAVE tool. To use WAVE, click here and enter the URL for the webpage you want to check.