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.
Learn more at the University's accessibility start page.
Where can I read NYU’s policy?
What is the scope of the policy?
All content and aspects of NYU’s websites that are created, published, or substantially altered after January 1, 2015 needs to be made accessible. Content should be construed broadly to include anything on the NYU websites including, but not limited to, audio, video, images, tables, forms, documents (in any format, including .docx and .pdf), and html.
What are the deadlines?
- All new content added to your website after 8/1/2018 must follow accessibility rules.
- The infrastructure of your website (templates/CMS/applications) must be made accessible as soon as possible, and no later than 11/20/20.
- Pre-existing content (including web page content, forms, PDFs, Docs, Media, etc.), added to your website since 1/1/15 needs to be made accessible by 11/20/20.
- Content uploaded prior to 1/1/15 does not need to be remediated unless you get a specific request to do so.
Where can I start learning about remediating (making accessible) my website/content?
This NYU digital accessibility site provides good starting points on many accessibility topics.
NYU’s provides specific guides and resources for:
We also have some accessibility documentation on our site.
How do you recommend remediating existing web content?
- Delete any content–possibly even entire pages–that you don’t need. (This will reduce what may need remediation.)
- Refer to our accessibility documentation for guidance on how to remediate the remaining content.
How do you recommend remediating existing file-based content? (PDFs, Word)
- Delete any files you don’t need. Delete old versions of current files. Even though these files may no longer be linked from your pages they may still be findable in web searches. Check our accessibility documentation regarding files for details about file deletion.
- Consider converting content you need to keep to webpages. Webpages are easier to make accessible, easier to edit, mobile-friendly, and usually better for the end user.
- For files that need to stay as files, we will be following up with options for remediation. If you want to get a head start, feel free to check out NYU’s accessibility guides on this topic:
How do you recommend remediating web forms? (PDF or in-page)
Please contact law.web@nyu.edu about remediating forms.
How do I know if my web content is compliant?
There are no tools that can fully assess the compliance of a website. It’s best to ensure that editors are trained and that accessible practices are being followed. Please review NYU's resources for evaluating accessibility.
However there are some tools that may help you in identifying accessibility issues on your pages. One that we have found to be helpful for content review is Totally. Look for the installation section on the Totally page. In brief, you make a bookmark and then click that bookmark from a page that you want to evaluate.
How can I get myself or my staff trained in accessibility?
Fall 2019 Training Sessions
Oct 16, 2019, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM [RSVP]
Location: VH 218
Nov 6, 2019, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM [RSVP]
Location: VH 218
Can’t make a training?
Here’s a recording of an earlier session. Use the NYU netID sign-in option.