What is Digital Accessibility?

Digital accessibility is the practice of ensuring that NYU websites, web applications, and digital content can be used by our community who have a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight or cognitive abilities.

Websites, web applications, and digital content are integral to the University’s academic and administrative work. However, not all resources are developed with digital accessibility in mind, which can make using digital content difficult or impossible for some individuals.

Accessibility promotes an improved user experience for everyone. Simple and clear layouts, high color contrast, and the option to search and read a transcript or captions to a video or audio recording, enhances everyone’s online experience – including those using assistive technologies.

NYU has adopted the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, AA standards. Anyone creating digital content at NYU is responsible for creating content that complies with these criteria.

What’s your role as a content creator?

Accessibility is a shared concern for anyone in the NYU community who has a hand in creating, sharing, and publishing digital resources.

As content creators who create and publish text, images, video, and audio, you must adhere to accessibility requirements when creating and publishing digital content.

Accessibility Best Practices

Factors to consider when creating accessible content include:

NYU considers accessibility as a factor in our overall website experience—when we design for inclusivity, we improve the site experience for all of our users. As WP content creator, you’re responsible for your content, and by creating accessible text, images, and multimedia, you can help make NYU Web Publishing more inclusive. Learn more about Digital Accessibility at NYU.

Top 5 Accessibility Checklist

  • Headings and Heading Order: Are there section headings that separate content into segments? Are they descriptive? Do they descend in a logical way, e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2?
  • Color and Visibility: Does the text on the page stand out against the background?
  • Links: Do the links describe the destination clearly and are they easy to find?
  • Image Descriptions: Do all non-decorative images have descriptive text (alt tags)?
  • Media Captions: Do media have captions for audio and descriptions for information provided visually?

Additional resources

For more information, review: