Digital Accessibility at OHIO

Our Vision

Ohio University strives to be a leader in digital accessibility by ensuring that all digital experiences — including websites, documents, instructional media, applications, and systems — are usable, perceivable, and operable by people with a wide range of abilities and assistive technologies. Accessibility is integrated into our technology lifecycle — from procurement to content creation, and from governance to continuous improvement. This digital accessibility practice supports equitable access and aligns with globally recognized standards, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA.

Responsibility & Accountability 

The Office for University Accessibility works collaboratively with many departments to identify, implement, and support accessibility in centralized services. Accessibility is a shared responsibility:

• Kerri Griffin, Director of Civil Rights Compliance and Title IX Coordinator, ADA/504 Coordinator
• Office for University Accessibility ensures ADA compliance across university programs and services. 
• Digital Accessibility Services (Office of Information Technology) provides consultation, purchasing and technology audits, and training. 
• University Communications and Marketing ensures ADA compliance within Drupal content management system for ohio.edu websites. 
• University Faculty and Staff: Content creators and units must ensure content and tools they produce or acquire are accessible.

Accessibility Support & Training

To support this vision and promote ongoing improvement, Ohio University provides multiple resources: 

Offices

• Office for University Accessibility (Accessibility Services) — Coordinates disability accommodations and serves as a central point of accessibility expertise in partnership with OIT.
• Office of Instructional Design — Provides support and development to faculty in a variety of ways including course design or redesign services to create accessible courses and utilizing principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support a wide range of learners.
• Instructional Technology Consultations — Provide a consultative approach to leveraging existing accessible technologies to assist pedagogical needs.
• University Libraries — Committed to an ongoing partnership with publishers to promote and ensure content is digitally accessible. Connecting with subject matter librarians allows faculty to explore digital course content resources that can be linked in the LMS, instead of leveraging photocopied pages or pdfs.
• University Communications and Marketing — Provides consultation, training, and support related to marketing design and website maintenance.

Communities

• OHIO DAN — A cross-campus learning community for building accessibility knowledge and habits. 
• Web Editors Forum — A monthly online meeting for all web editors, publishers, and content managers to discuss topics of interest to improve our websites and the processes we use.

Online Training and Tools

• 7 Core Skills of Digital Accessibility — Simple, practical habits that support Ohio University’s accessibility standard (WCAG 2.1 AA) and help you create content everyone can use in websites, documents, courses and videos.
• OHIO Web Essentials — Online training available to anyone that wants to learn more about document and web accessibility (required course for all web editors and publishers)
• Web CMS Training and Support — Governs website editor access and mandatory training, oversees accessibility and document remediation for web content, audits webpages for accessibility compliance.
• Canvas LMS Accessibility Checker – Faculty can leverage a built-in accessibility checker in their Canvas courses for native Canvas content.