1: Introduction

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility is actively designing, developing and creating content that doesn’t hinder any person from interacting with the website — meaning all web content can be perceived, operated and understood by people of all abilities.

Standard web accessibility practices aid users in different ways, depending on their needs. For example, requiring captions on all videos helps multiple audiences, including:

1. People with hearing-related disabilities (such as Deafness)

2. People with cognitive disabilities (such as ADHD)

3. People who can’t play audio aloud (such as while inside a public library)

Without captions, these users would miss most, if not all, of a video’s content. With captions, users can equitably access the content.

As we’ll explore throughout this challenge, web accessibility is not a project. It’s an attitude — a way of approaching your work at UAlbany.

What are the goals of this challenge?

UAlbany’s diversity drives excellence in everything that we do — and, as a website editor, you play a critical role in making the University inclusive to all users.

During this challenge, you will learn about:

• the diversity of disability, common web accessibility barriers that users experience and the assistive technology some use to access the web 

• UAlbany’s web accessibility standards, how to put those principles into practice, and the resources and support available to you

Each day, we’ll tackle another basic accessibility principle. Expect a short description, followed by an instructional video and a daily quiz. We’ll also include supplemental daily resources.

If you successfully complete each module of this challenge (as measured by the eight quizzes), you will earn a certificate of completion.

To get started, all participants should watch today's video and then complete our entry quiz, which will simply help our team benchmark participants’ existing knowledge of web accessibility. Don't worry if you don't know the answers — you'll learn them during this training.

Watch Today's Video