What is Digital Accessibility and why does it matter?
Detailed Information
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights:
"Accessible means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability. Although this might not result in identical ease of use compared to that of persons without disabilities, it still must ensure equal opportunity to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of such technology."
Digital accessibility ensures everyone can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with information on the internet and computers, regardless of ability.
Accessible digital technologies provide equal opportunity for those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological disabilities or impairments. Often, people using the web, web applications, or software need to use assistive devices, so our technologies must be built properly for those devices to access all the information correctly.
Environment
- All digital technologies employed as part of a University activity, program, or course, such as web sites and pages, electronic documents, software, hardware, web-based services, digital library materials and databases, etc.