Web Accessibility FAQ

The creation and dissemination of knowledge is a defining characteristic of universities and is fundamental to Purdue University’s mission of learning, discovery and engagement. Delivery of information electronically is central to carrying out this mission. Acknowledging this fact, the university is committed to ensuring equal access to information for all its constituencies. This commitment to digital accessibility is everyone’s responsibility, and everyone is responsible for ADA compliance.

Everyone is responsible for ADA compliance. Anyone that makes decisions around, allocates budget dollars to, contributes content to or helps maintain a website, is responsible.

Yes. The university cannot delegate its responsibility to ensure that its services, including those offered through third parties, are accessible. Accordingly, if anyone working on a Purdue website links to a third-party website, even if the university does not own or control the content, they must ensure that the website/content is accessible.

Essentially, if you share an external link on your site, wherever this link directs a user to needs to meet accessibility requirements.

The first step is to check whether the site falls under the purdue.edu domain.  If the site is part of a partnership with another higher education institution or is funded through a federal grant and hosted by an external organization, Purdue Brand Studio advises working directly with those who control that domain to ensure compliance.

There’s not a form to complete, but you should ask them for documentation/confirmation of their compliance with WCAG 2.1A/AA.

In instructional contexts, instructors may link to general external websites (such as journals or news outlets). When doing so, they should provide an accessible version of required materials when barriers exist and offer a way for users to request an accessible alternative.

If the link is to a general website without documents you can control (e.g., a news site like the NYT), Purdue Brand Studio advises including a statement noting that the link directs to an external site and providing a way for individuals to reach out if they encounter barriers accessing the content.

If third-party content is required for coursework or required to be used in connection with a program or activity, it must be accessible. For technology licenses owned by your department such as homework platforms or online textbooks, please work with your department head and procurement office to have discussions with the third-party vendor around making content accessible and compliant with the university guidelines.  

Yes. Here is some sample verbiage:

“This link leads to an external website not maintained by [University Name/Department/College]. These sites may not follow the same accessibility standards (such as WCAG 2.1) required by ADA Title II. If you experience difficulty accessing this content, please contact [Department/Unit Name] at [Email/Phone] for assistance or to request an alternative format.”

For personal sites—such as those created by faculty and linked from their courses— while we do not control external content, we may still be responsible for making the content accessible if accessing the content is required for the program or activity. For example, if you link to a document on a non-accessible site, Purdue Brand Studio recommends either:

• Linking to the document through one of our library databases (if available), or
• For course materials, downloading and uploading it to Brightspace so it can be checked for accessibility.

Whenever possible, avoid hosting PDFs. Instead, present online content as accessible web pages rather than PDFs.

Brailleworks is an approved vendor for Purdue and you are welcome to work directly with them.

Departments will be responsible for coordinating document remediation and cost. To begin the process of requesting a quote from Brailleworks for PDF document remediation, please send an email to Quotes@BrailleWorks.com.  This will reach their entire sales staff and ensure quicker response times.    

Considerations for your email request:

• Accounting contact email if needed.
• Brailleworks must have an example of the final file(s) in their possession to provide an accurate quote. Their email can accept roughly 8 MB. If the file or files are larger, they can send instructions to FTP (file transfer protocol) to their cloud storage transfer.  
• If you face a deadline to have your file(s) in-hand, please specify this in your email so they can check with their production staff on feasibility.   
• All files should be in PDF format. The best files to work with are text accessible. This means you can highlight and copy all text into a Microsoft Word document. 
• For each request, include the college or department name, address, phone number and the cost center, or if you work with purchase orders, that would be helpful to provide.

If a PDF must be used, it must be fully accessible. Automated checks when using Adobe Acrobat and/or Siteimprove are necessary but might not catch all issues. Document owners are responsible for ensuring full accessibility.

PDF remediation requires specialized knowledge. Individuals may remediate PDFs themselves only if they can ensure full compliance. Using trained accessibility partners and professionals is strongly encouraged.

The ADA regulation does not specify a preference for the format of the document other than to state that any electronic files (PDFs, word processor, presentation, spreadsheets, etc.) must meet the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. In other words, it is not the file format or extension, but compliance with the standards that should control what is used here. That being said, “native format documents (e.g. a Word document) are often more accessible than a PDF (especially if the PDF isn’t properly tagged, headed, etc.).” It is also recommended that an underlying document be made accessible prior to converting it to PDF format, as that will reduce that amount of remediation required on the PDF.

The new rule applies to all online content, including, but not limited to, websites, electronic documents, digital tools and other web content, regardless of whether it is public or non-public or password protected. There are limited exceptions to this rule. One such exception is for individualized password-protected documents. Examples include paystubs or tax-related documents.

Yes, WCAG 2.1 applies to intranets, especially if they are part of an organization’s internal information technology and are subject to legal requirements like the ADA or Section 508. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were originally developed for the web, but the W3C provides separate guidance called WCAG2ICT to help apply the same principles to non-web technologies like software, documents, and intranets. There are no exceptions in the rule for internal sites/intranets.

Yes, Purdue Brand Studio will provide updates in the Boiler Web Teams channel and in Purdue Brand Network meetings.