Understanding user experience and accessibility is essential to creating effective digital products.
This page addresses common questions about digital accessibility — what it is, why it matters, and how we play a part.
It’s designed to provide clear, foundational information for teams, stakeholders, and anyone working to improve accessibility and inclusion.
The goal of digital accessibility (a11y) is to facilitate digital content creation that supports each individual user’s needs and preferences.
Accessibility ensures people with disabilities can perceive, navigate, and interact with the web.
Accessibility ensures that users are not prevented from accessing and using the web. As such, Yale University has an Accessibility Policy to ensure we serve accessible sites and web applications to all users. View the Yale Accessibility Policy more detailed information and requirements.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are a set of internationally recognized criteria for making digital content accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. The criteria are broken into four categories: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR) and three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA.
Yale’s accessibility policy requires adherence to WCAG 2.2 AA, which includes all Success Criterions at levels A and AA.
Assistive Technology (AT) encompasses any device, service, or product used to improve or maintain the functional capabilities of users with disabilities.
Within the context of digital accessibility, AT often includes screen reading software, alternative input methods, and user-customized settings. Ensuring web content adheres to WCAG provides for a frictionless experience when using these assistive technologies.
Everyone. Designers, developers, content writers, QA testers, and project managers all share responsibility.
Accessibility should be embedded in the team culture, not assigned to a single person.
This policy serves to address the needs of individuals with disabilities who wish to use university websites and applications as part of their education, to participate in programs, to engage in campus activities or to conduct university business. Making Yale’s digital content accessible aligns with the university’s mission to disseminate knowledge and to promote diversity and inclusion throughout our community.
The policy applies to any website or application that conducts university business. This is defined as any activity that is carried out under the auspices of Yale University. A school, organization, office or course website, for example, would be covered by the policy. While a personal faculty website is an example of a site that is not covered, we encourage all sites be made accessible, if possible. If you’re not sure whether your site falls under the policy, contact the IT Digital Accessibility team via accessibility@yale.edu.
All University websites should have a link to a page expressing Yale’s commitment to accessibility, if Yale has the ability to add such a link. The preferred location is in the footer of every page, but it suffices for the link to be on a single page, as long as it’s easy to find. For more details on this requirement, see our accessibility statement page.
All content entered in University websites should be accessible after March 1, 2018. All new University websites that are created after September 1, 2018 fall under the policy and should be accessible. This also applies to University websites that undergo substantial revisions. Substantial revisions include modifying the majority of the content, or a change that substantially alters the usability or design. In addition, University websites owners who manage sites that are maintained, upgraded, or updated by suppliers should impose obligations on the supplier to deliver accessible technology and/or content when the contract is renewed.
Owners of existing websites may be required to establish a plan for ensuring accessibility upon notification from the Accessibility Steering Committee.
The policy applies to websites on Yale-controlled domains, which means that Yale can exercise control over the site platform or theme or content. Whatever element of the site which you have control over should satisfy WCAG 2 Level AA. For example, if you upload a video to YouTube, that video should be captioned. If you purchase a vended solution and adjust its color scheme, then you should use adequate color contrast.
There are a number of ways to evaluate a website or application for accessibility, including automatic scanning, manual checklists, and expert reviews. We recommend you apply a variety of approaches. ITS can assist with accessibility testing and connect you with companies that provide expert accessibility evaluation services. For more information about accessibility testing, visit Yale’s Testing for Accessibility page.
It is important to consider accessibility from the beginning of the web redesign process. To learn more how to address accessibility with vendors, visit the Working with Vendors section of the Accessibility website.
All content entered on a university website, new or existing, should be accessible. To learn more about creating accessible content, visit our accessibility articles page.
Yes, any documents and media displayed on your website should also be accessible. For example, a YouTube video embedded on your site—even if you do not own the content—needs to be accessible in order for your website to be in compliance. Visit our Multimedia and Documents pages to learn more about creating accessible media and documents.
Anyone creating multimedia should include transcription and captioning of content as a normal part of the production process. Text versions of multimedia are critical for some disabled users, and tremendously beneficial for most users. A high priority should be given to multimedia that is posted to public websites where the audience is potentially large and the disability status of viewers is not known.
Some multimedia, such as Zoom meeting recordings and classroom lecture recordings in Panopto, with access restricted to a small number of known employees, or students enrolled in a course, with an expected use not to exceed a single term, is a low priority. It may be acceptable in these situations to provide transcriptions or captions only upon request or when there is an approved accommodation.
The university has a Digital Accessibility team in ITS to provide support to the Yale community. A comprehensive resource on web accessibility at accessibility.yale.edu offers instructions on how to make websites accessible, information on tools and services, and guidance on how to seek assistance. There will also be regular training sessions scheduled throughout the year to directly assist faculty, staff, and students.
Creating and maintaining accessible websites and applications may include costs for services or tools that help with testing and remediation. Consideration of the costs early in the development or procurement process will help site owners plan their budgets appropriately. For help thinking through the financial impact of making your site or application accessible, contact the IT Digital Accessibility team at accessibility@yale.edu.
You may contact the IT Digital Accessibility team at accessibility@yale.edu.