Web Accessibility
The University of Akron is committed to make its websites comply with Section 508 of the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and WCAG 2.0. We work to improve your website’s digital accessibility for those users with visual, auditory, motor and cognitive needs. Our staff can simply run our tests and provide you with a detailed report of accessibility issues and recommended ways to resolve them; or our developers can make the needed updates to your site to improve web accessibility.
Benefits
- Better access for those who rely on University of Akron web sites
- Peace of mind regarding unit web site accessibility
- Effective, affordable web development
Available To
- Faculty/Staff
- Students
- Alumni
- Researchers
- Guests
Service Provider
Information Technology Services (ITS)
185 Carroll Street
330.972.6888:
Scope
All published pages within the dotCMS content management system will comply with our web accessibility standards, which are defined lower in this document. This includes forms displayed on one of our pages or linked to from one of our pages. Consult with the webteam to help ensure that your forms meet our accessibility standards.
Unpublished sites and pages are in archive status and do not have to meet the standards unless their status changes.
These standards apply to dotCMS, CASHNet, our WordPress sites and bepress. Software/sites under the direction of other university departments are beyond the scope of these guidelines. This includes My Akron, Brightspace and the faculty sites within Zipspace.
Outside services
When contracted web services under UCM management come up for renewal, or when we contract for new services, we will require language to assure the supplier meets our standards.
Responsibilities
UCM will place priority on bringing core web pages up to standard. We will provide training, support and guidance to our colleges and departments, as they are responsible for bringing their sites into compliance and maintaining them.
Exceptions
Exceptions to this policy should be requested through an email to web@uakron.edu. UCM, after consulting with others, will grant exceptions as appropriate.
Questions
Questions about this policy, training, support and compliance tools (SiteImprove) should be sent to web@uakron.edu.
Our accessibility standards
We have adopted the World Wide Web Consortium’s standard: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.0, AA conformance level as the minimum accessibility standard for all dotCMS pages. WCAG 2.0 was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, the same international group that releases standards on HTML and other web architectures.
To serve people on our main site using screen readers, the University employs the services of Usablenet, which provides a text-only display. A link appears in the left side of the footer on every dotCMS page.