Digital Accessibility

Why Digital Accessibility Is Important

Digital accessibility means that websites, applications, and other digital content are designed, developed, and written to be accessible to and usable by all.

Making digital content accessible is essential for people with disabilities and helpful for everyone — and is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Title III of the ADA requires businesses open to the public (public accommodations) to make their digital platforms accessible, meaning websites, apps, and online services must provide “full and equal enjoyment” for people with disabilities, aligning with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA) as the industry standard, focusing on aspects like keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, alternative text, captions, sufficient color contrast, and accessible forms.

In April 2024, the Department of Justice released significant and stringent new regulatory requirements on digital accessibility that affect all units and functions of the University, such as websites (including third-party sites that represent the University), enrollment, marketing, academics, student life, administration, and research. These requirements are set to take effect in April 2026.

The University is continually working to ensure that its web and mobile application content, including academic course content, is accessible and adheres to the standards and requirements mentioned above. This work requires collaboration across many areas of the institution to assess, plan, implement and monitor the priorities needed to ensure compliance.

Who Is Responsible for Achievement and Maintaining Compliance?

The Offices of the General Counsel, the University Webmaster, Academic Affairs, and Information Technology are tasked with overseeing the creation of accessible content. Members from these, and other areas, have formed a steering committee which has been tasked to ensure the University’s compliance now, and in the future. This includes educating the community about compliance, providing tools for assessing the compliance of pages and documents, and providing answers on how to build better pages, documents, and other digital content.

However, while the university can provide information, training, and assistance regarding compliance, it is ultimately up to each community member at FDU who creates digital content to apply relevant rules during the course of their work. Everyone is responsible for following the accessibility rules and guidelines in order to create a truly compliant and accessible digital environment at FDU.

The Basics

Make your course materials, websites, documents (including PDFs, charts, graphs, and pictures), social media posts, online meetings, emails, and videos accessible. All communications or material distributed digitally needs to have accessibility taken into account. While the core principles remain the same across all digital media, the specific methods used to achieve accessibility will vary depending on what media is being created.

For example:

  • Use programs’ built in formatting tools, including style settings, when writing text to apply headings, bulleted lists, etc. programmatically instead of manually.
  • Avoid including text in images, and include alternate text (alt text) for all images.
  • Do not rely solely on text color to convey meaning (not accessible to screen readers).
  • Use captioning and transcripts for all video content and web meetings, including Zoom. Pay attention to text size, contrast against background, etc. to make text easily viewable.
  • When coding a program or web application, be aware of accessibility rules such as allowing keyboard navigation, removing timed elements, etc.

Policies, Standards, and Guidelines

A full suite of policies, standards and guidelines for FDU is still under development. The following list may be incomplete.