Web and Digital Accessibility: Our Shared Responsibility

Dear Faculty and Staff,

We are writing to share with you the same information university leadership and web editors have already received: Web and digital accessibility is a priority for our community and everyone who contributes content on the university site shares in this responsibility.

Web accessibility ensures websites work for all possible audiences. For many people, it’s easy to browse, point, click, skip over what they don’t want to read, and watch and listen to video clips. But for people with visual impairments who rely on screen readers and for those with hearing or physical impairments, a particular design choice or presentation may create barriers to access.

Web pages are rich and valuable resources for all our audiences. Yet, if a video isn’t captioned appropriately… if the color contrast in graphics doesn’t meet accessibility standards… if text and images on a web page or in a linked pdf are not available to all, we are not serving our entire audience — which may put the university at risk of legal action.

Your department or division web manager will be working with you on an ongoing basis to ensure that all content — especially documents and video — are accessible. If content does not meet accessibility standards, it will need to be removed.

More information on steps taking place at USF and other helpful resources can be found at this web page.

As you know, USF is committed to being an inclusive, welcoming community, and, of course, has a legal and moral obligation to ensure its web presence works in the most equal and inclusive way possible.

This is an ongoing and long-range initiative for us. Other challenges and opportunities will undoubtedly arise as we move forward and learn about our audiences’ needs, and as we learn about emerging technologies and tools that will help us in our work to ensure inclusivity and access.

Thank you for your cooperation and participation in this university-wide effort. If you have any questions, please contact webservices@usfca.edu

Sincerely,

Donald E. Heller
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Donna J. Davis
General Counsel