What is Digital Accessibility?

Why Digital Accessibility is Important

• Digital accessibility significantly affects everyday lives. More people are continually using assistive technology, for example:
• • A person with a vision disability needs to use the zoom feature to enlarge text on a tablet. An accessible website allows for customizable text to ensure usability.
  • A person with a learning disability such as dyslexia uses a more accessible font or a tool to read content aloud.
  • A person with a hearing disability requires captions to understand the information provided in videos.
• Digital accessibility ensures that people with disabilities have equal access to websites, educational resources, and all aspects of our digital campus. We guarantee that students with physical disabilities can access our facilities by providing accessibility features. Likewise, our online resources and courses must have the accessibility features necessary. When we plan for accessibility, we ensure everyone has the same opportunity to enjoy the benefits of our world-class research university.
• Digital accessibility is required by law and a civil right. People with disabilities are denied equal access to information when web content is inaccessible. Hundreds of universities – including Harvard, MIT, California at Berkeley, and Colorado at Boulder – have faced lawsuits or Department of Justice complaints stemming from digital barriers. Being proactive helps us comply with laws and mitigate risks.
• Digital accessibility ensures that we purchase products designed with usability for everyone. Using accessibility standards leads to products with greater ease of use and flexibility. Many essential accessibility features ensure that content is usable across multiple devices.

Get Started

Learn what accessibility means, how to be respectful and inclusive of people of all abilities, and why it’s important for technology and materials to be accessible to everyone. Explore the following resources.

• Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility
• Introduction to Disability and accessibility training 
• Digital Accessibility Foundations is a Free Online Course for technical and non-technical learners.

Support the Movement

Add a Digital Access email signature card to your email signature.

1. Save the email signature card graphic(s) to your computer.
2. Create a direct link to the Digital Access website from the email signature card graphic(s).
3. Add alt-text to the email signature cards:

Alt-text: Don’t forget: Make your digital content accessible. Visit digitalaccess.missouri.edu for best practices.

Alt-text: When you make your content accessible, everyone wins! Visit digitalaccess.missouri.edu for best practices.