Accessibility ("a11y" for short) is a continuous and collaborative process, so please contact the USD web team with any concerns that anyone has.
Here's a quick overview of what we do at USD to ensure all USD websites are as accessible as possible:
We have a full-time web accessibility specialist.
We attempt to "bake in" accessibility solutions into the fundamental elements we use to make our web pages. As well as into the tools we provide maintainers which they use to add content to those pages. Basically, we attempt to make all parts of accessibility concerns work "auto-magically" so that no one (outside of the Web Team) has to be concerned with the major possible issues. From their perspective, it all "just works."
Even with the magic baked in from the ground up, there are still individual content issues which no system can yet make 100% compliant in all circumstances, even with the coolest AI. In those instances, we provide training. For example, to get access to editing our websites, everyone has to complete Cascade training, which covers these handful of concerns. This page also details those concerns. We also offer hands-on, individual training for any concerns by request.
Every time a maintainer submits changes to the website, the Web Team reviews those changes through a process called "workflow" before the changes go live. The main thing we check for in workflow is accessibility compliance.
There is a continuous process by which, every few years, each site on USD’s entire web presence is updated. During these updates, the Web Team thoroughly combs through every site to make sure it's accessible to the latest standards, including the upcoming WCAG 2.1 (we're currently trying to make sure everything is compliant for WCAG 3.0, which hasn't been finalized yet, but we like to be forward acting and as future proof as possible).
We have manual quarterly accessibility reviews of the entire website to help catch any issues that crop up over time.
Whenever an issue arises that did escape our efforts, we immediately set about resolving them. We try to be as proactive as possible when it comes to accessibility, but some issues do seem to make their way through from time-to-time. We also maintain good contacts with the Disability and Learning Difference Resource Center for those times when a student has an overlap between a physical accommodation need and a digital one.
Additionally, we also leverage artificial intelligence tools now to help catch things we may miss.
If you catch any accessibility errors, you can create a web request at any time, even if you have other web-related questions.
If you have any questions please let the USD Web Team know via our online web request form.