Procedures for Digital Accessibility

  • Procedure Number: 200-09-01
  • Procedure Title: Procedures for Digital Accessibility
  • Policy Owner: Information Technology
  • Procedure Approved: NA
  • Date Revised: NA
  • Date Reviewed: NA 

Responsibility

The College expects that Senior Leadership will promote broad awareness and model behaviors in support of this Policy and its accompanying Procedures. Improving digital accessibility requires the attention and commitment of the entire College community. Accordingly, all members of the College community should be mindful of this Policy and aim to ensure that College content they post to, publish on, or communicate through College IT is accessible.

Where possible, including on websites operated by the College, Olympic College administrators should indicate commitment to accessibility by posting a link to this Policy and Procedure.

Prioritization Plan

The College will maintain an Accessibility Steering Committee (ASC) to establish and recommend to senior leadership a prioritization plan for improving the accessibility of existing College Information Technology, including websites and web-based applications, and the existing college content hosted, published, or communicated on those platforms. 

Priority will be given to College IT platforms that provide the most essential functions to, and are most used by, Olympic College faculty, staff, and students. In the case of public-facing websites, priority will be given to sites that are among the most highly utilized for instruction and support.

Accessibility Steering Committee

The ASC will be chaired by the IT Accessibility Manager. In addition to preparing the prioritization plan described above, the ASC will be responsible for:

  1. providing periodic review and revision of this Policy and its Implementation Procedures, including making appropriate updates to the Policy’s Standards definition as industry standards and practices evolve, with recommendations going to Senior Leadership;

  1. working with Senior Leadership to promote general awareness of this Policy;

  1. assessing and reporting to Senior Leadership the College’s accessibility efforts as outlined in this Policy; and

  1. establishing a process and designating appropriate authorities to review and decide on requests for Policy exceptions.

New Instances of Olympic College IT

Instances of newly purchased, licensed, or internally developed College Information Technology are expected to fully conform to the accessibility standards at the point of rollout or implementation. Where such conformance with the accessibility standards is not technically feasible or may require extraordinary measures due to the nature or purpose of the Information Technology, a request for exception must be submitted for review.

Procurement Considerations

Olympic College personnel purchasing or procuring College Information Technology are responsible for ensuring that suppliers seeking to develop or provide College IT are aware of this accessibility policy and that contracts with such vendors fully hold them accountable to the standards. Olympic College IT and Procurement Office staff as well as others tasked with supporting IT procurement efforts should comply with these efforts when involved in IT purchases.

The IT Accessibility Manager will help purchasers identify resources, strategies, and guidelines for securing the greatest possible level of conformance to the standards from third-party vendors, and purchasers and providers of College IT are expected to adopt and practice them. The Policy expects the College to apply its market power to prioritize and promote digital accessibility. However, the Policy recognizes that the College can exert less control over some “off-the-shelf” Information Technology developed and marketed outside the College.

New College Content

Those using Olympic College IT to post, distribute, or publish college content should aim to make such content conform to the accessibility standards, to the extent technically feasible. Where conformance with the accessibility standards is not technically feasible, college users should consider how to make college content available in an accessible alternative format to persons with disabilities.

Exceptions and Remediation

IT purchasers or providers requesting an exception to this Policy may be required to submit an accommodation plan detailing how their unit will make, when applicable, the services or information provided by the College IT in question, available to persons with disabilities, using alternate accessible methods. The additional cost and expense incurred to bring College IT into conformance will not be considered a valid basis for granting an exception, except in extraordinary circumstances and as approved by the IT Accessibility Manager in consultation with the ASC. 

The ASC may require that some or all non-conforming portions of an instance of college content or College IT be brought into conformance by designated staff or suppliers, and the expense of that work may be charged to the unit that is responsible for assuring the accessibility of that asset. If the ASC is unable to identify who is responsible for an instance of college content that does not conform to the Accessibility Policy, then the ASC may ask that the content be removed from usage until it can be brought into conformance. 

Upon request by an individual who is unable to access specific College content due to non-conformance to the standards, either the requested content must be updated to conform to the standards, or the requested content must be made available in an alternative format in a timely manner. The unit responsible for the creation and maintenance of college content is responsible for making it accessible or providing an accessible alternative.