Digital Accessibility Plan

Ensures accessibility is a strategic priority.

College President, Provost, Vice Presidents, Dept. Chairs, Unit Directors, etc. play a critical role in prioritizing and supporting digital accessibility efforts across campus. Those in leadership roles must ensure their staff prioritize the accessibility of SMCM's digital resources as this is necessary for all members of the SMCM community, including those with disabilities, to actively engage with the college's programs, services, and activities.

Responsibilities include

• Upholding a commitment to inclusive, accessible materials
• Promoting a culture of accessibility and inclusivity.
• Coordinating resources to support implementation.
• Collaborating with the Digital Accessibility Task Force to improve digital access across campus.

This group meets regularly to share resources and work on strategies for getting the college’s digital content to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines by the April 24, 2026 deadline. You can reach out to any of them for more information.

• Dr. Jerri Howland, Vice President of Student Affairs, Point of Contact for President’s Cabinet
• Jeannette Modic, Director of Web Services, Point of Contact for Institutional Advancement
• Kelly O'Grady, Director of Accessibility Services, Point of Contact for Student Affairs
• Amy Baker Coordinator of Accessibility Services
• Samantha Elliott, Director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching & Learning
• Amanda VerMeulen, Director of the Hilda C. Landers Library and Archives
• E. Jenell Sargent, Associate Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
• Jennifer Falkowski, Director of Instructional Systems and Support, Point of Contact for Business and Finance
• Katy Arnett, Associate Provost, Point of Contact for Academic Affairs

Teaching faculty must ensure all students are provided with access to the instructional resources in their courses. This includes, but is not limited to, your course videos, syllabi, publisher resources (e.g., Wiley, McGraw Hill, Hawkes, etc.), textbooks, discussion board, course site, etc.

Responsibilities include

• Upholding a commitment to inclusive, accessible materials.
• Ensuring Word, PPT, and PDF course documents are available in accessible formats.
• Whenever possible, using course textbooks that are available in both digital and printed formats.
• When applicable, ensuring publisher resources comply with WCAG 2.1 AA  standards.
• Hosting course videos in Kaltura (i.e., Bb/Canvas); ensuring they are accurately captioned and transcribed; and, when necessary, audio described to support students who are blind/low vision.
• Using accessible communication platforms like Zoom or MS Teams when facilitating synchronous online meeting sessions (for courses and/or specific class sessions)

Web developers and web content authors develop and maintain the templates that many of our websites are built on. As such, they lay the groundwork for units/departments to create accessible public-facing web resources that can be accessed by all members of the SMCM community, including those with disabilities.

Responsibilities include

• Upholding a commitment to inclusive, accessible materials
• Ensuring WordPress and Drupal web templates adhere to WCAG 2.1 AA  standards.
• Working toward achieving at least 95% accessibility compliance score for any websites that you oversee.
• Participating in regular web accessibility trainings/meetings.

Professional faculty and staff oversee critical college operations like the registrar, IT support services, parking and transportation, student health, counseling and psychological services, recreation, etc. To ensure equivalent access to these support services, it is important these units know how to comply with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

Responsibilities include

• Upholding a commitment to inclusive, accessible materials
• Ensuring online resources (e.g., forms, applications) are accessible to individuals with disabilities accessing critical unit/departmental supports and services (e.g., Anthology, Student Health, Registrar, Parking Services, etc.).
• Ensuring electronic documents (i.e., Word, PPT, PDF) adhere to WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
• Ensuring digital communications (i.e., social media, newsletters, listservs, etc.) adhere to WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
• Participating in trainings to stay abreast of the latest digital accessibility-related changes/updates. Including our self-paced course on digital accessibility
• Ensuring purchasing and procurement guidelines

The Library & Archives provide access to an extensive collection of digital information and research support resources to the SMCM community.

Responsibilities include

• Upholding a commitment to inclusive, accessible materials
• Ensuring the Library website, research guides, FAQs, and scheduling solutions, and online-resource providers are accessible to faculty, staff, students, and visitors with disabilities.
• Providing access to an OCR capable scanner for faculty, staff, and student use.
• Collaborating with teaching faculty and the Office of Accessibility Services to purchase items for the collection in accessible formats.
• Increasing access to records in the College Archives by creating Title II-compliant digital copies of physical documents and photographs.

The Purchasing Office oversees the procurement of goods and services by collaborating with units and communicating with vendors to ensure all Commonwealth and Mason policies are followed. From a digital accessibility standpoint, procurement officers ensure that technology purchases include guidance for vendors to provide tools that meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

Responsibilities include

• Upholding a commitment to inclusive, accessible materials.
• Ensuring RFPs, contracts, and purchasing agreements include accessibility language referencing WCAG 2.1 AA standards and any relevant state and local digital accessibility-related laws.
• Collaborating with faculty, staff, and/or units to ensure technology vendors provide voluntary product accessibility templates (VPATs) and/or accessibility conformance reports (ACRs) as a part of any RFPs, contracts, and purchasing agreements.
• Collaborating with the OIT to ensure all technology purchases are reviewed for, among other things, accessibility.