ACTION REQUIRED: Web Accessibility Compliance
The new Colorado accessibility law, HB21-1110, affects university websites and will go into effect July 1, 2024. This means that university website owners/content managers must ensure your website content meets the minimum web accessibility standards before July 1.
Learn how to meet accessibility standardsWeb Accessibility - About This Site
This site serves as the university's hub for information regarding web accessibility, including information on how content editors and site owners can ensure that their web sites are following accessibility guidelines. Information around web accessibility includes content, page structure, images, videos, documents, and color usage. We follow WACAG 2.0 guidelines put forth by the W3C.
Getting started with accessibility
We have taken care of accessibility concerns related to the content management system, Sitefinity, so that you don't have to worry about it. This includes things such as color contrast of links and headers/text with a background color, ensuring JavaScript is accessible, creating accessible widgets, designing with accessibility in mind, and accessibility testing. So what does that mean for our content editors and site owners? What can you do to ensure that your sites are compliant?
How do I make my site accessible?
This site will provide you with a growing number of step-by-step guides on how to make particular parts of your site accessible as well as general accessibility information to help you understand why it is so important to us that everyone take part in making the University website accessible to all. First, as content editors and site owners you will want to focus on the things you put on your website, this includes content, images, tables, page structure, videos, documents, etc. Once you have built a page or two on your site, test that your pages are accessible by following our [accessibility testing check list]. In addition to accessibility testing resources, here are a few guides you can start with:
WAI-ARIA stands for "Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications." The suite defines new ways to make content and code more accessible to screen reader users and those who cannot use a mouse. Aria is made up of roles, states, and properties. It is especially helpful with dynamic content and more complex developments that utilize AJAX, JavaScript, HTML, and related technologies. Web Services does their best to ensure that all features we create include aria if needed, but content editors can also use aria within their own content if necessary. Aria may make web sites more accessible, but it is very easy to misuse it and cause your web site and content to be more inaccessible.
If you are a content editor or site owner who needs helps with making your site accessible or have accessibility questions or concerns, you can attend one of our open labs to receive assistance. Open lab is offered every Monday morning from 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM and alternates between the CU Denver and CU Anschutz campus. You can find the open lab schedule on the Office of Information Technology website. You may also send an email to websitehelp@ucdenver.edu detailing your needs, concerns, or questions.Additional accessibility resources
This site will provide you with a growing number of step-by-step guides on how to make particular parts of your site accessible as well as general accessibility information to help you understand why it is so important to us that everyone take part in making the University website accessible to all. First, as content editors and site owners you will want to focus on the things you put on your website, this includes content, images, tables, page structure, videos, documents, etc. Once you have built a page or two on your site, test that your pages are accessible by following our [accessibility testing check list]. In addition to accessibility testing resources, here are a few guides you can start with:
Adding WAI-ARIA to your content
WAI-ARIA stands for "Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications." The suite defines new ways to make content and code more accessible to screen reader users and those who cannot use a mouse. Aria is made up of roles, states, and properties. It is especially helpful with dynamic content and more complex developments that utilize AJAX, JavaScript, HTML, and related technologies. Web Services does their best to ensure that all features we create include aria if needed, but content editors can also use aria within their own content if necessary. Aria may make web sites more accessible, but it is very easy to misuse it and cause your web site and content to be more inaccessible.
Who can I go to for help?
If you are a content editor or site owner who needs helps with making your site accessible or have accessibility questions or concerns, you can attend one of our open labs to receive assistance. Open lab is offered every Monday morning from 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM and alternates between the CU Denver and CU Anschutz campus. You can find the open lab schedule on the Office of Information Technology website. You may also send an email to websitehelp@ucdenver.edu detailing your needs, concerns, or questions.
Additional accessibility resources
- WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines cover a wide range of recommendations for making web content accessible. These guidelines are the go to standard for web based accessibility.
- WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) is a site dedicated to web accessibility and has an abundance of articles, resources and guides to help make web content accessible.
- a11yproject is another excellent site dedicated to website accessibility and features many articles, tools, guides and resources all dedicated to accessibility.
- SiteImprove offers a comprehensive archive of videos dedicated to accessibility topics.
Additional accessibility information, guidelines, tools & resources can be found at our dedicated OIT web page.