Does your college/university website comply with the ADA?

Is it accessible to students, faculty or staff with disabilities?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 spelled out some specific requirements for higher education institutions.

As quoted in a pamphlet about Auxiliary Aids and Services for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities from the US Department of Education, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 states that:

“No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance . . . . “

As a consequence, any colleges or universities receiving federal financial assistance (and their websites) should be accessible to students, faculty, staff or alums with disabilities.

That’s where the guidelines for section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 can be very helpful.

Even if higher education institutions are not required – per se – to comply with section 508 (the law only applies to federal and other governmental agencies), these guidelines are a good start to make sure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities.

Penn State’s IT Services have built a very good introduction/tutorial titled “Creating Accessible Websites,” where you can also find a Quick Accessibility Checklist.

And, if you want to find out whether or not you should worry about this at all, you can just run your homepage and secondary pages through Bobby, a free online validator.