Web Accessibility
Summary and Purpose
Berea College commits itself to fostering an inclusive and accessible environment for all students, staff, faculty and visitors who participate in the College’s services, programs and activities. Part of this commitment includes developing and maintaining a public-facing website and its contents that is accessible to all, including individuals with disabilities (including vision, hearing, motor, cognitive and neurological) in accordance with federal and state laws.
Berea College is committed to complying with state and federal laws regarding individuals with disabilities, including, but not limited to: Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Kentucky Accessible Information Technology Law (KRS 61.890).
Definitions
Scope
This policy applies to the College’s public-facing web properties, the content they house and their procurement, development, implementation and ongoing maintenance. It is the responsibility of all Berea College web developers, content publishers, editors, domain owners or anyone who has any role in creating or updating Berea College web content to follow the guidelines contained in this policy.
Standards
To adhere to the Web Accessibility Policy, all official Berea College websites should meet the accessibility standards, as set forth in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG), Level A and AA.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines “four principles of accessibility” within WCAG 2.1:
All official Berea College webpage footers must contain a link to report accessibility issues. Upon request to address an issue with the accessibility of a webpage or website, the issue must be addressed and in compliance with WCAG 2.1 or an equivalent alternative must be made available in a timely manner.
Reporting an Accessibility Issue
Those who wish to file a concern regarding an inaccessible website or webpage may fill out the online concern form or call the Marketing and Communications department at 859-985-3018.
Enforcement and Assistance
It is the responsibility of the Marketing and Communications department to enforce accessibility standards and ensure that content managers conform to those requirements. The web development team will routinely fix accessibility issues and mitigate new issues as needed using a system to track and correct new content.
Any web technologies may be removed or decommissioned if not in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, regulations and guidance. Requests for exemptions may be requested only if compliance is not technically possible or requires extraordinary measures due to the purpose of the page and the nature of the information.
The Marketing and Communications department will provide professional development opportunities to campus web content managers to create accessible web pages using WCAG 2.1 level A and AA standards.