My Web Accessibility Page

Importance of Web Accessibility

The University of California Office of the President is committed to electronic accessibility. This commitment includes creating sites and pages here at UC San Diego that are accessible to all users.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that public spaces are accessible to all regardless of disability. Recent lawsuits have demonstrated that websites are treated like a public space for this purpose.

In order to comply with the ADA, the University of California follows an international set of Web standards: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

Screen Readers

Imagine being a user with a visual impairment. If you could not see this page, you would need a screen reader to help navigate through the content. Link to an example of a screen reader in use.

Just as buildings need to be accessible to individuals in wheelchairs to be compliant with the ADA, websites need to be accessible to individuals that use screen readers.

As mentioned in the video clip, not all content is equally useful to a screen reader program. Some things you can do to help screen readers include:

Using headings

Having informative link text

Opening links in the same window (i.e. don’t open a new window)

Including descriptive alt text for images

Using standardized site organization

The campus CMS helps you manage a site that has a standardized organization and navigation across UC San Diego site. It also takes care of some of the behind the scenes requirements so you don’t have to. But you are responsible for making sure the content of your page is accessible.

Additional Benefits

Creating more accessible content also creates more usable content.

Headings help users scan the page and find what they are looking for. Informative link text makes the page easier to read. Keeping links in the same window allows users to use the back button on their browser – a common behavior that is disrupted if you open links in new windows.

Accessible pages can see improvements in search engine results.

Headings are an important component for search engine optimization, so organizing your content with headings simultaneously boosts your search. Images of text are invisible to search engines. By having alt text that contains all the information of the image, you allow search engines to include this content as a search factor.

Resources

University of California

UCOP Electronic Accessibility

Information Technology Accessibility Policy (PDF)

Electronic Accessibility in the News

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/nyregion/college-websites-disabled.html

https://www.d.umn.edu/~lcarlson/atteam/lawsuits.html

Questions? Contact wts@ucsd.edu between 9AM and 5PM