New Web Accessibility Guidelines

TO:  Vice Presidents, Vice Provosts, Deans, Directors, Department Heads, and Managers
FROM:  Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President, Administration
     Tracy Futhey, Chief Information Officer, Vice President, Information Technology
​     Michael Schoenfeld, Vice President, Public Affairs & Government Relations
RE:  New Web Accessibility Guidelines

Duke has established new guidelines to bolster its ongoing efforts to make websites and web content broadly accessible, including captioning of videos and inclusion of alternative text for images.

Beginning Nov. 1, 2017, any Duke University unit, division, or department that builds or substantially modifies its website must incorporate, to the extent feasible, accessibility standards into the build or re-build process. These requirements are based on considerable research and work with units across the University and meet the best practices of digital accessibility.

Existing websites will be reviewed by Duke’s new Web Accessibility Administrator to address accessibility issues. Any compliance issues identified as part of an accessibility review must be addressed by the host department or the website may be taken offline until the issues have been resolved.

Duke has also developed a new Web Accessibility website that includes the guidelines, tutorials, accessibility tools, and training to better understand and implement the web accessibility requirements.

Duke values diversity and inclusion, and making our websites more accessible reflects this ongoing commitment. Additional communications with more technical details and support resources will be sent to Duke’s web and communication professionals. For more information, visit the Accessibility website. Thank you.