This article covers the digital accessibility guidelines for the UNC community.
Introduction
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill believes everyone deserves the opportunity to succeed and participate independently in a welcoming environment. We are committed to creating an inclusive digital experience. We enable the University community to deliver accessible digital content and resources with the knowledge that accessibility enhances usability for all y’all!
This page provides links to digital accessibility resources for more learning. For additional resources and services, please email us at Digital_Accessibility@unc.edu.
Information
Defining Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility is a practice ensuring that content, resources, and technology communicated electronically can be used regardless of ability, disability, or assistive technology.
Digital accessibility promotes inclusivity in your content, including, but not limited to:
- Websites
- Video and audio content
- Electronic documents
- Email Software purchases
While digital accessibility specifically impacts people with disabilities, it improves the user experience for everyone.
At Carolina, we use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as our standard for digital accessibility. WCAG is internationally accepted maintained by the W3C. The laws that UNC must follow to meet our federal compliance requirements align with WCAG. Overall, WCAG gives us actionable criteria to make digital content more accessible and usable for everyone.
You can read UNC’s policy to learn more about what’s required for UNC-Chapel Hill’s digital accessibility compliance:
You can also sign up for one of our trainings to start making digital accessibility a part of your process.
Digital Accessibility Resources
By making digital accessibility part of your process, you can remove barriers for your students, colleagues, visitors, and beyond. The DAO provides resources and support to make it easier for you to learn about the digital accessibility requirements and best practices. Sign up for one of our trainings to learn more.
Top 10 Tips
Based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), these tips are a starting point for accessibility. WCAG is an internationally accepted set of guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C. At UNC, we aim for WCAG 2.0 levels A and AA. See our Digital Accessibility Policy for more details.
- Headings
- Consistent layout
- Keep it text
- Text size and spacing
- Plain language
- Descriptive link text
- Color contrast
- Alternative text
- Video and audio
- Ask the DAO
Specific resources for...
Accessibility is a Process
Remember accessibility is a process, not a one-time project. You won’t be able to fix everything overnight, and you’re not expected to. Try one of the following approaches to make digital accessibility part of your daily work:
- Create a timeline based on the next time you use specific digital content (e.g., a video in a course that needs captions)
- Make a task list focused on content types (e.g., images, headings, videos, etc.)
- Add one accessibility best practice into your daily workflow. Once you’ve mastered it, add in another and keep building your skills
- Look at analytics or other usage data to determine what digital content gets used most often
Use one or more of these approaches to break the work into manageable chunks that you can address over time. Each one will allow you to focus on the accessibility work you need to do. This effort will make Carolina’s digital presence more inclusive for everyone.
Whatever you do, remember you’re not alone. The Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) is here to support you. You can email us at Digital_Accessibility@unc.edu anytime.