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Web Accessibility Policy

Web Accessibility Coordinator: Chris Knudson, Marketing & Communication
Web Accessibility Committee: Loni Abbas, Information Technology Services; Nicole Willis, Academic Resource Center; Janet Huebner, Wartburg Store; Rachel Clark, faculty representative; Karen Thalacker, legal counsel

Statement
In accordance with federal and state law, Wartburg College strives to provide equal opportunity in all educational and administrative services, programs and activities. Facilitating equal and effective access is the responsibility of all college staff and faculty. That responsibility includes ensuring that websites and web services provided or utilized by the college are consistent with the law and the college’s commitment to accessibility.

Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to facilitate and verify that information provided through the college websites (online content) is accessible to students, prospective students, employees, guests, and visitors with disabilities, particularly those with visual, hearing or manual impairments or who otherwise require the use of assistive technology to access information.

Applicable Parties
This policy applies to all staff, faculty and student employees at the college. However, it is most applicable to the following: Marketing & Communication, Information Technology Services, Vogel Library, and any staff, faculty or student employee who creates, edits, posts or maintains online content as part of his or her official college functions.

Key Definitions

  • Accessible: 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. A 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.
  • Disability: A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.
  • Online Content: Any information or service that may be accessed via a web browser, including—but not limited to—internet websites, images, audio, video, search engines and locally or remotely hosted (e.g., “cloud”) software systems.
  • Web Accessibility Committee: A group consisting of representatives from across the college who assist, support, and advise the Web Accessibility Coordinator.
  • Web Accessibility Coordinator: The WMU employee(s) charged with primary responsibility for coordinating and implementing this Policy.
  • Web Accessibility Standards: The technical standards for web accessibility compliance adopted by the University.
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): A set of web accessibility guidelines published by the W3C. As of the drafting of this Policy, the most current version of these guidelines is WCAG 2.0. These guidelines may change as technology advances.
  • Web content management system (CMS): A software system that provides tools for creating, modifying and publishing web pages.
  • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): The main international standards organization for the web.

Penalties and FAQs

Penalties
Online content found to be in violation of this policy should be referred to the Web Accessibility Coordinator, who will contact the responsible unit to begin remediation procedures. The college reserves the right to remove any non-compliant content if the violation is not addressed in a timely manner.

FAQs

  • Whom do I contact if I have a concern about web accessibility or need assistance with making my Online Content accessible? Contact the Web Accessibility Coordinator. See Section 2.2.
  • How do I report inaccessible online content? Students, prospective students, employees, guests, and visitors may report violations of the college’s technical standard(s) by contacting the Web Accessibility Coordinator. See Section 2.2.
  • How do I know if third-party online content that I link to through my presentation/course materials complies with this policy? Contact the Web Accessibility Coordinator to request an evaluation of the content. See Section 2.2.
  • What if the online content I want to use is not, and cannot be made, accessible? Contact the Web Accessibility Coordinator for information on requesting an exception to this policy. See Section 2.2.

Policy
The following provisions apply to all online content acquired, published or hosted by the college or used to conduct business or activities. Online content includes content provided or developed by third parties (e.g. vendors, video-sharing websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, software-as-a-service providers, and other open sources) that the college chooses to make available via the web.

1. Web Accessibility Standards

  • WCAG 2.0 Level A conformance shall be the technical standard for evaluating the accessibility of online content at Wartburg College.
  • As technologies advance, the college will continue to consider, and may adopt, additional standards at the recommendation of the Web Accessibility Committee; however, in no case should any additional standards be interpreted as diminishing or negating the existing technical standard.

2. Implementation

    • 2.1 The Web Accessibility Coordinator will:
      • Have sufficient knowledge, skill and experience to understand and employ the accessibility standards;
      • Be housed in the Marketing & Communication Office;
      • Chair the Web Accessibility Committee;
      • Conduct regular audits to measure online content against the Web Accessibility Standards;
      • Document and evaluate all problems identified through audits.
    • 2.2 Web Accessibility Coordinator contact information:
    • 2.3 The Web Accessibility Committee will:
      • Consist of (at a minimum) a participant from each of the following offices or organizations: Information Technology Services, Marketing & Communication, Accessibility Services, and a legal representative for the college as needed.
      • Develop and define procedures to ensure that online content meets Web Accessibility Standards;
      • Develop procedures to ensure that content that does not meet the Web Accessibility Standards is evaluated and, if necessary, remediated within a reasonable period of time.
    • 2.4 The Information Technology Services Department will:
      • Work with the Web Accessibility Coordinator to incorporate Web Accessibility Standards compliance validation into the technology review process;
      • Assist Web Accessibility Committee in developing methods for tracking compliance with training requirement(s).
    • 2.5 All units and programs will:
      • Ensure that online content meets or exceeds the Web Accessibility Standards;
      • Review Web Accessibility Standards before acquiring any third-party product or service that provides or hosts online content.

3. Training

    • 3.1 The Web Accessibility Committee will:
      • Develop and execute a training program to educate staff, faculty and student employees who, as part of their official functions, create, maintain, post or distribute information with online content to students, employees, guests, and visitors with disabilities;
      • Develop a system for verifying that all of the individuals identified above complete the training requirements of this policy.
    • 3.2 The Web Accessibility Coordinator will:
      • Review each request for an exception to ensure that the proposed approach provides equal and effective access; and
      • Submit a recommendation to the Web Accessibility Committee.