How to Audit Your University’s Digital Ecosystem for Accessibility

Steps to Take When Ensuring an Accessible Digital Ecosystem

When you come in with a fresh perspective, it is easier to spot digital accessibility gaps that might otherwise be overlooked. Here are some steps for accessibility officers to take when ensuring an accessible digital ecosystem:

1. Set Up the Right Teams

A holistic view regarding accessibility can kick-start the process, however, it is equally important to diversify the voices that contribute to your accessibility goals. Create an action plan that can lead these integrated resources towards achieving goals within your accessibility roadmap. Conducting a digital accessibility audit requires expertise, the right tools, and a structured approach.

• Build an Accessibility Task Force – This task force will oversee everything throughout the accessibility process.  This task force should be responsible for bringing together key departments,  verifying accessibility across websites, apps, and tech tools, and championing accessibility across your institution.
• Faculty & Curriculum Group – This team can help professors create accessible courses and materials.  They should regularly ensure up-to-date revisions of circular content.
• Student & Community Board – Feedback from students with disabilities is necessary, both in verifying the effectiveness of changes that have been made and identifying remaining accessibility barriers. Here, we can hold on to the applications that truly serve all students in an equitable way and identify challenges that others may pose.

2. Design for Accessibility

This involves ensuring the design is versatile enough for all disabilities. Designing for full accessibility also involves the inclusion of students with temporary, situational, and lifelong disabilities. Considering various types of users can help you go above and beyond just legal requirements for accessibility.

Designing born accessible products is also a more proactive and cost-effective approach than retrofitting for compliance and all digital accommodations. Some questions that may help  speed up the process include :

• How do we ensure that students with various disabilities can fully access and interact with digital assets?
• Which barriers have the highest impact/pose the greatest challenges across our students? How can we prioritize addressing these barriers for our students?
• How do we track the impact of accessibility improvements?

Pro Tip: Think student-first. What digital tools do students use the most, and what happens if they aren’t accessible?

3. Build and Maintain Accessible Content

Even emails, event invites, and campus social media posts can be a struggle when they’re not formatted with accessibility in mind. Unfortunately, accessibility is often an afterthought, especially when it comes to marketing collateral. But these messages are often critical for students to receive.

It’s not just about inclusion, though; making sure students with disabilities feel connected to their community through social event updates is incredibly important. It’s also about safety and equal access to time-sensitive information. Snow day alerts, campus emergencies, and even health-related updates like those during the COVID-19 pandemic are frequently shared through these same digital channels. If those messages aren’t accessible, it’s students with disabilities who are most likely to be impacted.

From the physical challenges a snow day might pose for a wheelchair user, to the heightened vulnerability of medically high-risk individuals during a pandemic, accessibility isn’t optional—it’s essential. Making sure these communications are designed to reach everyone isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s a responsibility.

The fix? Convert scanned documents into live/ readable text, include alt text in any image-based content, add captions and transcripts to all videos, break up content with clear headings and bullet points, and use accessible templates for emails and university-wide communications.

4. Make Campus Tech Work for Everyone

Without proper access, signing up for classes, watching a lecture, and many other tasks can become discouraging and, quite frankly, frustrating for users with disabilities. Technology across higher education must be built to support screen readers, voice commands, alternative input devices, and all other forms of assistive technology in order to be truly equitable. Before procuring new software, ask vendors for accessibility reports (like their VPAT/ ACR). Consider more accessible authentication for security measures like CAPTCHA, by offering alternative options like biometric logins instead of text puzzles.

Start with establishing a digital platform that allows universities and businesses to create, manage, and deliver online courses. A good Learning Management System (LMS) ensures that learning is organized, accessible, and engaging. It should:

• Support all learners by being accessible to screen readers as well as all other assistive technologies, like voice commands and alternative input devices.
• Provide smooth navigation through clear course structures, descriptive button labels, and easy-to-find materials. These practices support all users, especially those with cognitive disabilities, by reducing cognitive load and those using keyboard navigation by promoting intuitive, consistent interaction.
• Include accessibility features like captions and audio descriptions for videos, adjustable text sizes, alt text for images, providing multiple modes of interaction, and providing multiple file formats.
• Enable tracking & feedback, helping instructors monitor student progress and improve engagement.

5. Implement the Right Testing Approach

• Automated Testing – Automated accessibility testing is a fast and efficient way to catch common issues, offering a helpful first glance at the accessibility of a website or digital product. Tools like WAVE, axe, and Siteimprove can quickly scan pages for errors such as missing alt text, color contrast issues, or improper heading structure, providing developers with a broad overview and saving valuable time during the QA process. However, while these tools are a great starting point, they are far from comprehensive.
• Manual Testing – Manual accessibility testing is a crucial step in creating inclusive digital experiences. While automated tools are helpful for catching technical issues, manual testing goes further by evaluating real user interactions. This is a slower but more accurate method of testing that involves human interaction. By testing manually, you can actively involve People with Disabilities (often referred to as user testing)  in the testing process to speak to their lived experiences. These users are critical in the testing process, they can help uncover subtle barriers and ensure improvements align with their needs and the needs of other users who require similar tools and/or accommodations. Though manual testing can be more time-consuming and requires knowledge of accessibility standards and assistive technologies, it ensures content is not only compliant but truly usable. When combined with automated tools, manual review provides a more complete and reliable picture of accessibility.

Building an Inclusive Digital Campus

Accessibility gaps, whether big or small, can make a huge difference in a student’s learning/educational experience. These barriers may affect the way a student can interact with and thrive in their learning environment. The key to achieving this is recognizing that digital accessibility is both a proactive and reactive process.

Proactively, universities need to embed accessibility into every stage of digital development, whether it’s choosing new software, designing websites, or rolling out learning platforms.

At the same time, accessibility also requires a strong reactive approach. That’s why it’s crucial to have systems in place to quickly identify and address accessibility issues immediately. Whether through student feedback, compliance reviews, or ongoing assessments.

Ultimately, creating a digital ecosystem that is considerate of various disabilities creates a ripple effect that benefits both users with and without disabilities. True accessibility isn’t just about ensuring compliance, it’s about ensuring fully accessible and inclusive learning experiences.