- What is the formal definition of “Digital Accessibility” as practiced by St. Olaf College?
Digital Accessibility is the practice of ensuring web and electronic content is usable by everyone, including individuals with physical, cognitive, auditory, neurological, and visual disabilities. It serves as an extension of physical accessibility into the digital world to ensure an inclusive experience for all students, staff, and visitors. - Which specific federal laws and regulations mandate St. Olaf’s compliance with digital accessibility standards?
As a private college receiving federal funding, St. Olaf must comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Additionally, the 2024 Health and Human Services Act (HHS) mandates that all web content meet the specific technical standards of WCAG 2.1 AA. - Explain the “distributed responsibility model” regarding content creation and revision.
Under this model, the responsibility for maintaining accessibility is shifted from a central group to all individual content creators across the college. Only Administrators who have passed mandatory training are granted access to create or revise content, and they are responsible for periodically reviewing their pages for continued compliance. - What are the consequences for a site Administrator who does not complete the mandatory Digital Accessibility Training by the designated deadline?
Any current Administrator who wishes to retain editing access to a St. Olaf website must take and pass the training module. If they fail to complete it by the end of the training term (October 31, 2026), they will lose their editing access until the training is successfully finished. - How does the college prioritize which of its 300+ websites receive attention first?
Prioritization is determined by public visibility and usage data gathered via Google Analytics, Acquia Optimize, and third-party audits. High-traffic, public-facing sites are addressed first because they pose the highest legal risk and are most critical for student recruitment and success. - What specific technical adjustments are recommended for creating accessible tables using the WPDataTables plugin?
When using the WPDataTables plugin, creators must select the option to make the first row a Header to ensure proper structure. Additionally, they should unselect the option to add the table’s Title within the plugin, as that title defaults to an H3 tag when an H2 tag is usually required for proper heading hierarchy. - How does the college address the inherent accessibility issues associated with PDF documents?
The college provides daily license checkouts for Adobe Acrobat Pro to help staff remediate PDFs, and inaccessible PDFs are flagged when uploaded to Moodle. Because PDFs are not inherently accessible, the college prioritizes their remediation as they can be particularly detrimental to students with impaired vision. - What is the role of the Digital Accessibility Team (formerly the Task Force)?
The Digital Accessibility Team is responsible for implementing and overseeing the system designed to bring college content into compliance. They focus on auditing digital materials, educating content administrators, and ensuring that custom WordPress themes and blocks support accessibility best practices. - Describe the purpose of using “Acquia Optimize” in the college’s accessibility strategy.
Acquia Optimize is used for broad-scale monitoring of the college’s web network to track overall site health and set accessibility benchmarks. It produces reports for individual sites, allowing the web team to identify high-traffic areas and monitor progress toward meeting technical standards. - What is the “Certification of Training in Digital Accessibility,” and how is it maintained?
This certification is an incentive developed by Marketing and Communications and Human Resources to recognize staff who complete mandatory training modules. To maintain the certification and continued web access, staff must re-take and pass the training on an annual basis, typically on their hiring anniversary.