The UMass President's Office Digital Experience team strives to ensure that all digital products, websites, and services meet the industry standards on digital accessibility. 1 in 4 people in America are either born with a disability or have acquired a disability. Disabilities can be apparent or non-apparent, so even when you do not see any colleagues with an apparent disability, you are often working alongside people with non-apparent disabilities, such as ADHD, color blindness, dyslexia, migraines, motion sickness, etc.
Understanding digital accessibility and your role
The Office of Civil Rights defines accessibility as, "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." Ways in which anyone can provide an equally effective experience can include: working with the Digital Experience team to purchase an accessible digital product; adding alt text to images for blind and low vision employees; designing animations that do not trigger seizures, migraines, motion sickness, and vertigo; or providing captions and a transcript for all videos and online meetings
Accessibility is an essential skill for anyone to learn and is critical to consider with all forms of digital content, including digital documents, data analytics, website content, and social media posts. The resources below provide you with best practices on accessible content.
Key Resources
Create accessible web content
This checklist is for anyone managing UMass President's Office web content.
Create accessible social media posts
Learn how to create accessible social media posts, including why Camel Case is so important when writing hashtags.
Create accessible data visualizations
Learn about how to create accessible data visualizations, including color palette considerations and alternative formats.
Provide accessible online events and meetings
Learn about accessibility best practices for online meetings.
Develop accessible training content
Learn how to develop accessible training documents and how to deliver inclusive training courses.
Purchase accessible products and services
Learn about the accessible procurement process and integrate it into your department's digital products and services purchasing process.
Develop accessible code and design
Anyone that develops code or designs for products and services at the university should refer to these standards.