Accessibility of Web Content

On this page:

University of Hawaiʻi Executive Policy 2.210 Use and Management of Information Technology Resources identifies the standards above as requirements for our Commitment to Access (III.G.). Meeting Accessibility Requirements for Web Pages describes some of the accessibility requirements for web pages.

Forms

We recommend using Google Forms (part of Google@UH) for many public information gathering needs, including surveys, waiting lists, and contest submissions. Google forms make it easy to collect email addresses and file submissions from respondents. The University of Colorado has an informative page describing the Accessibility of Google Forms .

Collecting Student IDs or Contact Information

UH Data Governance rules prohibit the storage of Restricted or Sensitive information on external 'cloud-based' servers. Should you need to gather this information, please contact the Web Services Office for assistance in setting up a web based form. If you are collecting non-public information using a PDF form, it is recommended that the form be submitted using the UH FileDrop service for security.

Non-Native Files

Not only do the requirements apply to web pages, but most of them also apply to non-web content², such as PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other files.

In our experience, it is often easier and less time consuming to convert non-native web content such as PDFs into web pages rather than to go through the process of making those files compliant. Thus, we recommend making the conversion to web format, and providing a link to the non-compliant file as a download on the respective web pages.

Furthermore, providing web-native content increases accessibility in that not all site visitors may be able to open non-native documents because they have not purchased or downloaded the software necessary to open such files.

Accessibility Training Resources

• Microsoft makes an Accessibility Training Video Series available for users of Office Software. Find Guides to making content accessible, tailored to Word, Excel and Powerpoint on the Microsoft Office website.
  • Improve accessibility with the Accessibility Checker
  • Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities
  • Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities
  • View Making Microsoft Word Documents More Accessible playlist
  • Microsoft Word: Creating Accessible Documents
  • PowerPoint Accessibility
• The Youtube channel Better Design 4 All has made a series of short videos covering remediation of common Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat accessibility issues.
• View Making PDFs More Accessible Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC playlist
• This PDF Remediation Youtube playlist YouTube playlist includes tips which may help address specific issues with making your PDFs accessible.
• Guide to PDF Remediation
• Creating Accessible Google Slides Presentations (Harvard Digital Accessibility)