Campus Standards for Digital Accessibility

Introduction

All course materials should be designed to be proactively accessible to as many students as possible. Examples of digital components of a class that should be accessible include: 

• Word documents, potentially including but not limited to, class syllabi
• PowerPoint presentations
• Google Apps (docs, slides, etc.)
• External websites
• Digital textbooks
• PDFs, potentially including but not limited to, class syllabi
• Video content, in-video quizzing tools
• VoiceThread or other synchronous platforms
• Canvas or other learning management systems 

Some training may be required to learn how to create certain accessible materials. Faculty and staff members have access to resources to support them in creating accessible content through the Digital Accessibility website and Office of Digital Learning. The practices outlined in the subsections below increase the likelihood that every student has an equitable opportunity in the course to succeed using their own abilities and learning preferences and will reduce the need for accommodations for individual students. 

Pre-Approved Course Accommodations

It is the responsibility of faculty, instructional designers, and content creators to ensure course materials meet digital accessibility standards. ODAI will support providing course content in an accessible format to students with approved ODAI accommodations. If a student has an approved accommodation from ODAI to receive course content in an accessible format, they should be provided access to the accessible content in sufficient time to meet course requirements. That access should be provided as close in time as possible to the time the rest of the class receives access to the content. For accommodation requests, students can initiate the process via the ODAI website. 

Documents

Students with disabilities should receive documents in an accessible format. Documents include Microsoft Office files, Google Apps files, and PDFs. A document is generally considered accessible if a student can get to the content on the platform of their choosing and they can customize it to meet their specific disability-related needs. Students are responsible for developing the skills necessary to use accessible content. 

Faculty and their departments are required to make course materials available in an accessible format in an on-going manner to all students, regardless of disability-related need. Accessible content gives many students a better learning experience by enabling them to search documents, read content on a variety of devices, and personalize documents with format changes such as font size and color. 

Information on topics such as creating accessible documents is available on the Digital Accessibility Standards and Resources webpage. 

Other Digital Course Content

Digital content extends beyond documents to include any information, communication, or activity that takes place on a technology such as a computer or mobile device. This includes websites, digital publisher content, open educational resources, and software. This content might or might not be created by faculty or staff. 

All forms of digital course content should be accessible to all students. However, it may not be feasible for faculty and staff to directly remediate digital content for accessibility if it was produced by a third party. This is not a reason in and of itself to not pursue accessibility, however, because the selection of this content in the course or program also comes with the responsibility to provide accessibility. Faculty and staff can and should advocate with the creators for the development and remediation of both accessible content and documentation to support faculty and students in using the product in an accessible way. 

If digital content is not accessible and cannot be made accessible within a reasonable timeframe to accommodate a student enrolled in a course with an approved accommodation, faculty must contact the ODAI so that ODAI can work with the faculty member and the student to devise an alternative reasonable accommodation plan for the student. If a student with an accommodation has difficulty accessing course content and a barrier is not otherwise known to the faculty member or ODAI, it is the student’s responsibility to contact ODAI as soon as possible to communicate the issue.

Introduction

Individuals with hearing impairments and other disabilities may need captioning in order to access the audio component of video media. Faculty, staff, and students are required to caption all video content that they create as part of their role at the university. All captions should follow FCC closed captioning rules. Captions must be reviewed for accuracy. Audiovisual content should contain captioning and be hosted on platforms that support closed captioning. If audiovisual content is shown on a particular device managed by the university, the device should be able to display captions, and the captions should be turned on. 

Captioning guides and resources, as well as a list of university captioning tools, are available on the Digital Accessibility Standards and Resources webpage. 

Course Accommodations

Any video media used in a course must be captioned if a relevant disability accommodation request has been submitted by a student. The faculty member will need to plan ahead to ensure that any audio or video course materials used for the remainder of the semester are accessible to the student. The student does not need to request captioning for every individual piece of media that will be used; the request applies to all media that is course content. 

Pre-Recorded Content

All public-facing pre-recorded video content representing the university or any of its departments or programs must be captioned. Non-captioned video that is currently in use internally that is not public-facing should be made accessible as soon as practically feasible. 

For pre-recorded content, review the ODAI's guide to creating transcript files. 

Live Content

Provide captioning for all audio content of live-streamed events and presentations. At minimum, enable automated live captioning. Human-created live captioning is required for accommodations and public live-streamed events. Information on captioning for live-streamed events and presentations is available on the Digital Accessibility Standards and Resources webpage. 

If you have questions about providing captioning accommodations, contact the ODAI for student accommodations, and HR ADA Compliance for employee and guest accommodations. 

Procurement

All departments, programs, instructors, and employees are encouraged to purchase or create captioned versions of audiovisual media whenever possible. 

Digital Displays, i.e., Television Screens

All public facing displays playing content with an audible component must have closed captioning enabled. If they do not have the capacity for closed captions, captions need to be embedded. 

Television Content

Any broadcast or cable television content displayed on campus must have closed captioning and have it enabled. 

Departmental Content

If departments are using televisions or digital screens to publicly display any materials, the audio content must have captions, and the captioning must be enabled.

Introduction

Departments and units, including all faculty and staff, are responsible for ensuring websites related to their programs and/or services are accessible. 

Guidelines

As noted in Section E, the campus uses Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level A/AA, the version adopted by Colorado House Bill 21-1110, as a guideline for accessibility for all information and communication technology (ICT), recognizing that replicable user experience is an important part of determining whether digital content is accessible. 

Members of the university community can access resources on creating accessible websites on the Web Accessibility page. For hands-on web accessibility support, web creators can email [email protected].