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UW-Extension accessibility policy

Equal Opportunity Policy No. EO 007A

Subject: Accessibility of electronic documents and websites

Date Effective: August 28, 2001 Revised: June 2, 2006

Chancellor Approval: (on original copy)

Purpose

UW-Extension is committed to the guiding principles of Universal Design. The Universal Design model advocates that the environment, materials, processes and/or products be proactively designed in the most inclusive manner possible so they can be used without the need for adjustment or accommodation. All citizens and employees, including those with disabilities, have a right to access UW-Extension's resources and, whenever feasible, this information should be available without the need for accommodation. To comply with University of Wisconsin-System Administration World Wide Web accessibility policy, the Americans with Disabilities Act and relevant Sections of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, the University of Wisconsin-Extension enacts this policy governing accessibility of electronic documents and of websites published and hosted by UW-Extension.

Audience

This policy applies to all faculty and staff involved in creating electronic documents, providing content for and/or developing websites.

Policy

UW-Extension will comply with all relevant subsections of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. Specifically, UW-Extension will maintain compliance with subsections 1194.1 through 1194.22 of Section 508. Extension embraces the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines as the standard for accessibility.

This policy applies to all forms of electronic communication, including, but not limited to: Microsoft Word, Powerpoint or Excel documents, Adobe PDFs, Web sites, etc. An electronic document must be created in an accessible format regardless of whether it will be published on a Web site.

Where compliance with this policy is not possible, the UW-Extension Provost and Vice Chancellor or designee may grant exceptions to this policy.

Electronic Information Resources

  1. All UW-Extension Web sites will comply with all relevant subsections of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. Specifically, UW-Extension will maintain compliance with subsections 1194.1 through 1194.22 of Section 508.
  2. UW-Extension embraces the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines as the standard for World Wide Web accessibility and will strive to achieve the goals of the World Wide Web Consortium.
  3. UW-Extension Intranet pages or sites which are to be viewed only by UW-Extension employees are only covered by sections 1, 4, 8, 9.A.4, 10, 11 and 12 of this policy.
  4. Every UW-Extension website must contain an accessible link or list a person to contact if users have trouble accessing content within a site. The following language must be placed on all sites with a contact person or position noted: "If you have trouble accessing this page, require this information in an alternative format or wish to request a reasonable accommodation because of a disability contact:[name]." This person should be the Web site developer, content owner or other person functioning in a comparable capacity.
  5. A variety of Web browsing software (including text-only browsers), different workstations and evaluation tools should be used to test website accessibility.
  6. All UW-Extension electronic documents must comply with this policy. Such documents must be viewed in their own applications or by using a Web browser plug-in.
  7. Upon request, transcripts and/or captioning shall be provided for audio/video content contained in electronic documents or websites.