Accessibility

All websites developed in Central’s content management system must strive to meet WCAG  AA and 508 compliance standards as outlined by the W3C’s WAI WCAG and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Section 508.  

The Institutional Marketing Team will ensure templates are optimized for 508 and strive to be ADA AA compliant. 

If content violates any compliance standards, the Institutional Marketing Team reserves the right to remove and/or correct the content in question. 

Below are basic, minimum standards that should always be followed when publishing images and documents to the web to help improve accessibility of content: 

• Images with text (flyers, posters, etc.) are not accessible by assistive devices, and are therefore not compliant with federal regulations.
• All images should have alt tags containing effective descriptions of the image so that users who rely on screen readers do not miss any information on the page. Exceptions to this requirement include when images are purely decorative. In these cases, alt tags are optional but still recommended. 
• All documents should be converted into PDF documents. Proprietary document types, like Microsoft Word or Pages, should not be used on the website. 
• PDFs should be made accessible whenever possible. This means a screen reader can read the content in the PDF without issue. Avoid scanning documents that could be converted digitally.