Digital Accessibility (DA) Home 

Start by thinking inclusively.

We want to make our content available to everyone.  People with disabilities may need alternative design or formats so they can have equal access.  Could people with these sample disabilities access your content?

• Auditory - would someone need to hear to process your content?
  
• Visual - is your content accessible to people with blindness, color blindness or low vision?
  
• Speech - does your app rely on voice recognition?  Will this work with slower speech, are their alternatives for those who can't speak?
  
• Physical - if someone can't use a mouse, because of a permanent or temporary disability (like a broken arm) can they navigate through your content with just the keyboard? (like making an appointment)
  

Listen to your instincts

• If you notice, "this seems a little hard to read or understand..." take actions like improving color contrast or simplifying the language when possible. One we start paying attention, you'll start to notice a lot more!
  
• Get digital accessibility training (UTMB login required) and learn how it plays a part in your role.

Barriers aren't just physical

• A11y is a numeronym for Accessibility, a way to simplify the word and keep the meaning. 
• There are 11 letters between the A and the y, so Accessibility becomes A11y.
• It can be pronounced as "accessibility" or "ally" depending on the context and is commonly used in the context of digital accessibility.

Digital a11y is the practice of creating equal access to digital content for our patients, staff, students, and others that consume our content.  The first step in the A11y process is to understand what's needed and the methodologies for meeting those goals. Maybe you've heard about Web Accessibility, -- that's just a portion of the content that needs to be accessible.  Digital content and applications are in continuous flux as technologies push new boundaries daily. We strive to continually improve our content availability from documents to email to video, to social media  to whatever comes next. This site provides a central location for accessing the necessary guidelines, training, and resources enabling us to create accessible and inclusive digital content.

At UTMB we are all content creators and need to learn the basics of digital accessibility. (And some of us have more specialized roles; Application Developers / Programmers, Content Designers, Human Resources, etc.)

Anything created or consumed electronically needs to be made accessible

• Email
• Office productivity documents (Word, Excel, PDFs, presentations, etc.)
• Digital Images
• Teams chats
• Online meetings (Teams, Zoom, etc.)
• Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc)
• Text Messages
• Videos (Microsoft Stream, Panopto, YouTube, etc.)
  
• Ebooks
• Podcasts
• Mobile Applications, websites, and web applications (Including navigation, images, forms, etc.)
• and more!