Summary: Digital accessibility is the practice of creating equal access to digital content. At UTMB we strive to continually improve our content availability for our patients, staff, students, and others that consume our content.
Each of us has a role in making content as accessible as possible. This site has been created as a training and reference site to educate the UTMB community about mandated accessibility requirements and the steps we can each take to best serve our various audiences.
Accessibility is a broad topic. Our approach focuses initially on sharing best practices for the most commonly used applications -- Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Word -- and will extend to other applications and needs over time. "Playbooks" for roles and applications provide tailored instructions. The good news is that as you become familiar with digital accessibility requirements and solutions, you'll find they often apply across applications.
Digital accessibility (a11y) is the practice of creating equal access to digital content
for our patients, staff, students, and others that consume our
content. The first step in the a11y process is to
understand what's needed and the methodologies
for meeting those goals.
Maybe you've heard about web accessibility
-- that's just a portion of the content that needs to be accessible.
Digital content and applications are in continuous flux as technologies
push new boundaries. We strive
to continually improve our content availability from documents to
email to video, to social media to whatever technologies come next. This
site provides a central location for accessing the necessary guidelines, training, and tools enabling us to create accessible and inclusive digital content.
What does a11y mean?
A11y
is a special type of abbreviation called a numeronym for the word
accessibility. Using a11y is a way to simplify the word and keep the
meaning (and it is much easier to type!)
There are 11 letters between the A and the y, so Accessibility becomes A11y.
It
can be pronounced as "accessibility," "a-eleven-ty" or even sometimes
"a11y" depending on the context and is commonly used in the context of
digital accessibility. Generally we will use the direct pronunciation of
"accessibility."
Another example of a numeronym is i18n for internationalization (there are 18 letters between the i and the n!)
CDC statistics show that "27% of adults in the U.S. (affecting 1/3 of U.S. households) have some type of disability."
Access
can be affected by permanent disability (vision loss), temporary
disability (broken arm), or situational challenges (a loud environment)
Auditory
- would someone need to hear to process your content if they were
hearing-impaired or in a loud environment? Are captions available?
Visual
- is your content accessible to people with blindness, color blindness,
or low vision? Is text large enough and does it have enough contrast?
Speech
- does your app rely on voice recognition? Will this work with slower
speech, are there alternatives for those who can't speak or who might be in a loud environment?
Physical
- if someone can't use a mouse, because of a permanent or temporary
disability can they navigate through your content
with just the keyboard? Do you rely on dragging (which can be difficult
for some, or do you also have methods for manually selecting values?
Cognitive -
is all of the content reliant on technical jargon? Are steps clear and
easy to follow for someone who is completing them for the first time or
may have trouble remembering multiple steps?
We want to make our content
available to everyone. People with disabilities may need alternative
design or specific formats so they can have equal access. Anything
created or consumed electronically (like email and Word documents) can
be made accessible.
Listen to your instincts
If
you notice, "this seems a little hard to read or understand..." take
actions like improving color contrast or simplifying the language when
possible. One you start paying attention, you'll start to notice a lot
more!