Web Accessibility for ETDs - Poster Presentation - USETDA 2020 Conference
Channel: USETDA
Date: 2021-02-18

Web Accessibility for ETDs - Poster Presentation - USETDA 2020 Conference. United States Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association. 

Web Accessibility for ETDs. 
Teri M Robinson, Lara Threet, Mississippi State University Libraries

The need for accessible websites and online documents continues to grow and play an important role in how universities reach users and stakeholders. In the summer of 2019, the Office of ETD Submission and Formatting was approached by university and library administration with the need to ensure that documents submitted by students to the Institutional Repository meet the institutional standards for web accessibility. With little direction on how to accomplish this other than we must conform to the AA level of WCAG 2.0, our ETD office began research to learn what would be needed and how to incorporate the requirements into the submission process so that students would be in charge of the accessibility of their documents. After looking at policies in place at other institutions and speaking with offices that work directly with the vision impaired, our office created a set of accessibility submission standards for theses and dissertations. The requirements went into effect during the spring 2020 semester. In this presentation we will discuss what we have learned from two semesters of implementing an accessibility policy for ETD submissions.

This presentation will cover:

• the web accessibility requirements our office added to the submission process
• how our office informs students of the new requirements
• how our office checks ETD documents for accessibility
• issues and challenges from two semesters of implementation
• future goals

USETDA 2020 Conference Proceedings: 
https://www.ocs.usetda.org/index.php/USETDA/USETDA2020/paper/view/218