Web Accessibility - Best Practices

Keep Accessible Design in Mind

The University of Utah is committed to providing access to its information resources to everyone. Part of that commitment is the ongoing process of designing and maintaining University of Utah websites using principles and techniques that enhance usability for everyone, including those with disabilities.

This website is designed to help you understand the basics of ADA accessible web design and provide guidelines and resources to help you design and maintain your site(s) using best practices for accessibility. The information provided will enable you to answer the following questions:

• Why is improving web accessibility important?
• What does web accessibility mean?
• What should University of Utah faculty and staff do to “Keep Accessible Design in Mind?”

This site contains an overview of best practices for improving web accessiblity. For more detailed information and techniques, WebAim is widely recognized as a reputable clearinghouse for the most current and comprehensive web accessibility information available, as well as training.

 

Why is improving web accessibility important?

Web accessibility advances The University of Utah’s mission. The U’s mission statement reads, in part, “We zealously … promote diversity and equal opportunity.” By continually striving to make our sites more accessible to people with disabilities, we help advance the goals of the U.

Web accessibility principles foster good design for everyone. By considering the needs of users with disabilities, an overall user-centered design philosophy is promoted, helping web staff stay focused on users’ perspectives and needs. Maintaining user-centered information structures, implementing clean and easy-to-navigate designs, and keeping current with new web techniques and their accessibility implications help us offer well-designed sites to everyone.

Web accessibility helps the U meet and anticipate legal obligations. U.S. laws regarding access for people with disabilities are in place, and change from time to time. By keeping accessible design in mind, the U takes a pro-active stance on complying with federal and state laws. Relevant laws to understand and monitor are featured on WebAim's site, and include the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Sections 504 and Section 508). The State of Utah’s accessibility policy and guidelines and web standards are important to monitor, as well.

 

University of Utah Policies and guidelines

• Policy 4-003: World Wide Web Resources Policy
  
  1. Non-institutional Web Sites and Pages
     5. ADA Compliance. Students with disabilities may request reasonable accommodations for access to materials on academic Web pages required for a University of Utah course in which they are registered. Reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the instructor and to the Center for Disability Services in order to establish the existence of a disability and/or to determine reasonable accommodation for access to required Web-based course materials.
  2. Institutional Sites and Pages
     3. Accessibility. The University of Utah is committed to the principle of universal access to official information and encourages Web page design for accessibility to audiences using alternate communication channels (e.g., text-to-speech or text-to-Braille browsers). Resources for designing and validating accessible Web pages are available through links on the University Webmaster Resources site.  
        1. ADA Notice and Alternative Delivery: If Web page accessibility for an Institutional University Web site is not feasible, then alternate methods should be made available for access to the non-accessible Web page content. Institutional University Web sites containing non-accessible pages must include on their home page, in a prominent location, the following notice: "In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the information in this site is available in alternate formats upon request."
• Policy 5-117: ADA Policy, Reasonable Accommodation and Access
  
• Meeting Section 508 Accessibility Standards guidelines from the University Marketing & Communications
  • Using U web templates makes meeting accessibility guidelines easier, because they were designed with accessibility in mind
  • The use of fly out menus is not acceptable for accessiblity

If you have questions, please contact the University Webmaster webmaster@utah.edu