In the past six years there have been several cases filed against colleges and universities for inaccessible websites, electronic course materials, or E-Learning systems. Most recently, a suit by the National Association of the Deaf claimed discrimination by Harvard and MIT because their online materials lack closed captioning.
The online education platforms that offer MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are also at risk. edX, Inc., a nonprofit that offers dozens of MOOCs free to students around the world, recently reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to make their platform, website, and mobile website comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) are the industry standards for accessible websites and off-line documents, respectively. They promote four key concepts for content:
- Perceivable
- Operable
- Understandable
- Robust
Does your website meet these criteria? KMA offers a website “Access Check-Up” that identifies:
- Current access features of your website;
- Inaccessible elements;
- Recommendations for improving access.
This “Access Check-Up” is a preliminary assessment that will either confirm your accessibility, or provide guidance for necessary or recommended improvements. For more information, contact Julie Garland.