Australian university websites: addressing challenges and barriers to accessibility compliance

This document is a work in progress. We welcome feedback and additions, and seek best practice examples to assist our colleagues across the sector in improving accessibility to university websites. Contact Iza.Bartosiewicz@rmit.edu.au with suggestions for inclusion.

1. Policy and governance

Challenges and barriers Why? Potential solutions Best practice examples
Lack of commitment from senior management
  • Mainly lip-service
  • Websites are still not considered to be of strategic importance in the university sector
  • No assessment/awareness of risks involved in being non-compliant (so far no educational institution has been sued for breaching web accessibility)
  • No accountability for (at all organisational levels) and no pressure put on web developers to follow accessibility guidelines
  • Lack of understanding of benefits of accessible websites
  • Not clear on obligations (how far do we take it?)
 
Lack of top-level sponsorship
  • In most cases it is still up to the individual web publishers to become aware and to comply
  • Compliance is not integrated into the planning processes/business requirements
  • There is nobody (officially) to turn to for assistance and advice
  • Appoint accessibility advocates/officers with the responsibility (and authority) to audit, mentor, advise and educate
 
Lack of global, clearly-defined and communicated requirements
  • In some cases policies and procedures exist but are not communicated to the relevant parties
  • Fragmented approach, no single, authoritative source of requirements
  • Locally developed procedures and guidelines may or may not be correct or adequate
  • Develop a web publishers/developers kit that would contain requirements, policies, procedures, style guides and relevant contact details
  • Develop accessibility compliance requirements for third-party applications and products in the form of a guide or checklist. This would be included in business case documents, tender documents, project briefs and specifications, software procurement procedures, etc. specifying ATAG and WCAG requirements
  • Develop accessibility compliance requirements for online learning as a checklist to be included as part of the course/program development and QA processes
 
Decentralisation of web publishing
  • Content Management Systems
  • Anyone can publish to the web
  • Lack of standard positiondescriptions for positions with web publishing/development responsibility
  • High staff turnover
  • Provide 'Web Publishing Central' where all information and requirements are available. This should including information kits, checklists, policies, guidelines, etc. for all existing and new staff
  • Organise staff induction sessions for people involved in web development/publishing and communicate requirements for web accessibility
  • Build accessibility requirements and design techniques into all relevant IT training sessions
  • Include a requirement for web accessibility awareness/skills in position descriptions for relevant staff (at all levels)
 
Unawareness of obligations across all organisational levels
  • Many still claim ignorance as the reason why accessibility obligations are not being met
  • Unless tested/validated, it is difficult to understand that pages will display differently on different browsers
  • Educate by showing examples of inaccessible sites and people struggling to use these
  • Provide testing lab and tools for validation
 
Low incentive to comply
  • No auditing or quality assurance processes
  • No accountability
  • No acknowledgement for meeting the requirements
  • Relative costs of compliance
  • Establish 'Web Accessibility Hall of Fame' where best practice examples can be featured and acknowledged
  • Provide checklists and tools (authoring applications, validators, testing stations)
  • Introduce auditing mechanisms
 
Resistance and complacency
  • Usually due to a belief in accessibility myths
  
Accessibility is a hidden problem
  • It is easy to forget or overlook it if no complaints are made
  • Make sure that students and staff are informed of their rights
  • Provide clear and accessible feedback mechanisms
  • Identify authors or creators of web content
 

2. Design and technology

Challenges and barriers Why? Potential solutions Best practice examples
Existing content management systems and authoring applications do not support the development of accessible content
  • If global templates contain elements that are not accessible, this will render the entire page inaccessible
  • Global, accessible templates can be 'broken' by web publishers
  • Authoring applications do not produce and/or preserve compliant code
  • Modify templates to ensure compliance
  • Provide the 'why' and 'how' training for web publishers
  • Conduct regular audits and user tests
  • Provide validation tools and tools that assist in production of compliant code
  • Have guidelines/checklists available for software vendors
  • Selecting and using authoring tools for web accessibility
  
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines can be confusing and open to interpretation
  • Web developers often struggle with interpreting and following the guidelines
  • Level A compliance is often inadequate
 
Lack of consistent support for web standards by user agents (browsers, screen readers, etc.)
  • Takes longer to develop sites and test for compliance
  • Hacks and workarounds abound
  • Provide easy access to testing stations/labs with adaptive technologies, validators, etc/
  • Lobby for web standards support
 
Legacy content
  • Could be costly to review and improve
  • Band aid solutions are common
  • Set priorities for review and redevelopment (ie. core content first)
 
Accessibility myths
  • Text alternatives are the best and quickest way of providing accessible alternatives
  • Accessibility is only for blind people
  • There are no people with disabilities in my class
  • Accessible websites look boring
  • Accessible websites do not include images or multimedia elements
  • Making accessible websites is expensive and difficult
  • Provide examples of good-looking sites that are fully accessibility-compliant (eg. 'Web Accessibility Hall of Fame')
  • Promote concept of universal access and potential benefits it would bring to the organisation, users and web developers
 
Existing commitments
  • Investments have been made into products and applications that are not compliant
  • Too expensive/difficult to switch to compliant alternatives
 

3. Training and professional development

Challenges and barriers Why? Potential solutions Best practice examples
Lack of skills/appropriate training
  • Accessibility skills are often not included as part of the web publishing training
  • Professional development programs developed for web developers, educational designers and academics (eg. 'Web Accessibility 101')
  • Time release for research and development
  • Link position pescription/skills required to the training offered
 
Web publishing is done by individuals with a variety of skills and training backgrounds
  • Knowledge of web accessibility is usually not included in position descriptions/key selection criteria
  • Include knowledge of web accessibility in position descriptions and as key selection criteria for relevant positions across all levels of the organisation
 

Other notes from the meeting

Ideas for WANAU

  1. Establish connections with external and government agencies
  2. Act as a support network for sharing ideas, requests for assistance and advice, etc.
  3. Act as a high-level representation/advocacy group
  4. Develop university-specific accessibility policies/accessibility plan/strategy that could be adopted across the sector
  5. Participate in conferences and seminars
  6. Provide representation on related groups and networks
  7. Lobby vendors and developers to support and comply with web standards
  8. Meet on a regular basis to showcase developments, report on relevant research, invite guest speakers
  9. Collaborate on research projects
  10. Develop training materials (web accessibility 101, accessibility information kits, checklists, etc.)
  11. Organise awareness campaigns

Local involvement

Other networks and initiatives

Organisations and groups

Projects

Information gateways