IT Accessibility Policies in Higher Education
This page provides a list of information technology (IT) accessibility policies in higher education. This list is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, it is intended to serve as a resource for institutions who are developing or considering developing their own policies. For information about the UW Non-Discrimination Policy, consult the Policies & Standards page of the current website. If you would like to recommend that a particularly strong, effective, or otherwise unique accessibility policy be added to this site, please send recommendations to Terry Thompson at tft@washington.edu.
- University of Arizona Web Accessibility
This web accessibility policy is accompanied by a variety of tutorials and testing tools, bundled into a complete easy-to-navigate package. - California Community College Distance Education Access Guidelines
Published in 1999, these guidelines are showing their age but are still an important resource, and provide one of the few sets of guidelines that covers the full range of distance education technologies, not just web pages. - California State University Accessible Technology Initiative
The most ambitious system-wide initiative of its kind, each of the 23 campuses in the CSU system are required by the Chancellor's Office to meet timelines and provide deliverables in the areas of web accessibility, instructional materials accessibility, and accessible electronic and information technology procurement. - Cornell Unversity Web Accessibility Policy
A well-developed policy document that explicitly defines all terms, scope of coverage, procedures for implementation, and a timeline for meeting the requirements. - MIT Web and software Accessibility Policies and Guidelines
MIT provides a full suite of documents and resources, including policy statements, as well as checklists for purchasing and developing software and web-based products - University of Minnesota Accessibility of Information Technology
This website includes the official policy, plus detailed standards for web, hardware, and software accessibility. The standards include specific techniques and technical notes for programmers. - North
Carolina State University Web Page Regulation
This official university regulation is one of the few policies that explicitly includes an enforcement mechanism for non-compliance. - The Ohio State University Web Accessibility Center (WAC)
The WAC supports Ohio State's web accessibility policy (linked from the WAC page) by supporting the university community with workshops and a web site analysis service. - IT Accessibility at Oregon State University
Oregon State University provides specific guidelines for web, hardware, software, and multimedia accessibility. - University of Texas at Austin Web Accessibility Policy
The UT-Austin policy is supported by an extensive set of internal services for educating web developers, compliance checking, and user testing. Accessibility is integrated into the larger set of Web Guidelines. - University of Wisconsin-Madison Web Accessibility Policy
UW-Madison's policy was originally passed in 2000, and may have been the first of its kind in higher education. It has been consistently revised since then to reflect changes in technology, and continues to be a model policy document.
Additional Resources on Accessibility Policy
- WAI Policies Related to Web Accessibility
The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative maintains a long list of national laws policies from well over a dozen countries, plus state and provincial policies within the U.S., Canada, and Australia. - State Accessibility Laws, Policies, and Standards
A database updated periodically by the Georgia Tech Research Institute. - How can our school or district go about developing an accessible information technology policy? - AccessIT Q&A.
- Is it reasonable to use an ad hoc approach to accessibility of electronic and information technology? - AccessIT Q&A.
- Which set of web accessibility standards or guidelines should I comply with? - AccessIT Q&A.
