The University of Oregon has a commitment to ensure that students, employees and members of the public — including those with disabilities — can fully participate in UO programs, services and activities.
In April, new rules for digital accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act will go into effect. These rules require all web content to meet specific digital accessibility standards, which apply to most digital content on the web.
For this reason, the university has taken several important steps to make our digital content available and accessible for everyone while removing barriers for people who are disabled.
This has included ongoing assessment of our public websites and establishment of training programs and guidelines to help people throughout the university ensure our content is accessible.
Your role
People in many different roles at UO create digital content. Staff at the university who create or manage content or websites should take steps now to review their digital content for accessibility compliance. This includes UO web pages, course materials in Canvas, and digital documents including web-based PDFs, Word files, PowerPoint slide decks, and videos.
The good news is that the main UO website is largely accessible due to efforts over recent years; but because websites are managed at the local level, it is important for anyone who creates or manages content to take a couple of important steps. That includes training, reviewing and making necessary adjustments to content.
Here’s what to do now:
Training
- If you create or manage digital content, take the relevant UO Digital Accessibility Training. These training resources explain the basic requirements and are the best starting point for everyone.
- Web developers, designers, and communicators: Take the UO Web Accessibility Training on LinkedIn Learning.
- Faculty will be receiving a message from the Office of the Provost and are encouraged to take UO Digital Accessibility Training in coming weeks.
Content
- Review your content: Delete any sites, pages or content that do not need to be online. This will help ensure a more manageable amount of content.
- If necessary, prioritize content that needs adjustment.
- Use UO’s Prioritization Guidance to inform decisions about which websites, webpages, courses, documents and other content is the most important to address first.
- The quick tips on the Basic Digital Content Accessibility page are a great place to start — especially for people creating documents and simple content.
- If you manage UO websites, make sure they use the latest version of the UO Cosmic theme and Cosmic design components for Drupal and UO Blogs (WordPress).
- Make any necessary adjustments to the remaining content.
- Visit the Digital Accessibility Guidelines for details on how to make different types of content accessible and to learn about Digital Accessibility Tools that can help you assess your own content going forward.
What types of content should be reviewed?
- Websites and web pages (including both public and password-protected/internal sites).
- Digital documents (PDFs, Word files, PowerPoint slide decks, etc.) available on UO sites.
- Streaming videos and multimedia.
Getting help
The university offers guidance and resources for the following aspects of the digital accessibility review:
- Please start by talking to the leadership in your unit, department, school or college to find out whether they’ve developed specific priorities or recommendations that apply to you.
- Support community. Please join the Web Accessibility Peer Support Community after you complete the UO Web Accessibility Training. Links to join the community will be provided at the end of the training.
- Contact the UO Digital Accessibility Architect at ictaccess@uoregon.edu for additional help.