Business Policies and Procedures Manual
Chapter 85: Computing and Telecommunications

Ensuring Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility

BPPM 85.55

For more information contact:
  Web Communication
  509-335-0383
  Information Technology Services
  509-335-4357


Overview

Washington State University is committed to providing equal access to electronic and information technology (EIT) for all students, staff, faculty, and others with disabilities.

This section provides responsibilities and procedures for ensuring the accessibility of materials and information provided through University EIT (e.g., websites; applications), in accordance with Executive Policy 7 (EP7).

Technology Task Force

Appointed by the president and chaired by the WSU Information Technology Coordinator, the Technology Task Force has the authority to ensure that all WSU website and other EIT publishers create accessible content in conformance with EP7.

WEB Accessibility

WSU Web Communication

The WSU Web Communication unit of University Marketing and Communications is responsible for auditing web accessibility. Through a crawler and manual checks, WSU Web Communication randomly reviews new or modified web pages to affirm compliance with EP7 and any other accessibility requirements.

WSU Web Communication maintains the web accessibility crawler. The crawler sends alerts about known errors or concerns to the content publisher and subdomain owner. Manual review of the website is still necessary.

WSU Web Communication also maintains a public web accessibility dashboard. The dashboard provides an overview of web accessibility at the University.

Subdomain Owners

The University assigns an owner to each subdomain, i.e., an area, department, or unit website within a main University website. (See also Executive Policy 21 (EP21) for further information regarding University domains and subdomains.)

A subdomain owner is responsible for ensuring that content on the site(s) is accessible in conformance with EP7. The subdomain owner must manually check web pages for accessibility issues. The subdomain owner must have knowledge of all additions or modifications to site content and alert the WSU web accessibility crawler to changes.

Web Communications provides an online contact form for reporting changes for the web accessibility crawler.

Use of Third-Party Vendors

Content publishers are responsible for the accessibility of applications and/or websites that are developed or updated by third-party vendors. Subdomain owners must inform WSU Web Communication when third-party suppliers provide website or application services.

WSU Web Communication works with the content publishers and subdomain owners to ensure that externally developed applications and/or websites meet accessibility requirements, including EP7.

Training

All content publishers at the University must participate in annual web accessibility training before publishing content online.

To deliver post-training support, WSU Web Communication hosts a weekly walk-in discussion of web-related issues. For information, contact WSU Web Communication; telephone
509-335-3518.

In addition, the University develops web accessibility guides and online tutorials.

_______________________
Revisions:  Aug. 2017 – new policy (Rev. 497)