Accessibility
Strategic Communications
Digital Accessibility
Our commitment to content for all.
In accordance with Purdue University policy, the Office of Strategic Communications prioritizes web content accessibility by adhering to web accessibility standards. Our goal is to deliver digital and web resources that are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Users are encouraged to report any accessibility issues to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance via the Accessibility Concerns Notification form, which facilitates the university's continuous improvement and compliance with accessibility standards.
The digital strategy team is rigorously applying the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, as the standard for designing and developing websites within the university's content management systems. These standards go into effect on April 24, 2026. By doing so, we strive to ensure that web content is accessible to users with disabilities. This adherence involves implementing specific technical and design criteria, such as providing text alternatives for non-text content, ensuring keyboard-accessible navigation, and ensuring sufficient color contrast. These continuous improvement efforts aim to enable everyone, regardless of ability, to interact effectively with and benefit from the university's website. Overall, these practices enhance the user experience for a broader audience.
The digital strategy team uses Siteimprove (administered by Purdue University West Lafayette), along with other analytic and optimization tools, to assess and enhance website accessibility, search engine optimization (SEO), and overall user experience. The team uses automated audits and reports to pinpoint accessibility issues, SEO best-practice adherence, and usability flaws across the university's website. These insights enable the team to make data-driven adjustments, ensuring continuous improvements toward compliance with accessibility standards, specifically the WCAG 2.1 Level AA technical standards, as well as maximizing user engagement and search engine visibility.
By spring 2026, the digital strategy team plans to raise awareness about, enhance support for, and offer supplemental training focused on accessibility in Drupal. This initiative will include hands-on Teams workshops, detailed online guidelines, and ongoing office hours to help Drupal publishers create and maintain content that meets accessibility standards. The support and training will aim to empower content creators with the knowledge and skills needed to produce content accessible to a diverse audience, thereby improving the usability of the university’s website. Through these efforts, the team will raise awareness of Drupal publishers' responsibility and role in publishing content that complies with these essential standards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Stay in the know.
Have questions on how to keep your Drupal site accessible? Curious about the accessibility initiative? Explore our most frequently asked questions here. Contact [email protected] with any additional questions or concerns.
Digital accessibility is an ongoing effort to make online content easier for all users to access. Content is accessible when it can be viewed on the web, shared in a link, or downloaded. However, making content accessible is not as straightforward as it seems, because users have different levels of navigation skills and needs, such as disabilities. All of these potential cases must be considered and accommodated.
The digital strategy team is rigorously applying the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, as the standard for designing and developing websites within the university's content management systems. These standards go into effect on April 24, 2026. By doing so, we strive to ensure that web content is accessible to users with disabilities. This adherence involves implementing specific technical and design criteria, such as providing text alternatives for non-text content, ensuring keyboard-accessible navigation, and ensuring sufficient color contrast. These continuous improvement efforts aim to enable everyone, regardless of ability, to interact effectively with and benefit from the university's website. Overall, these practices enhance the user experience for a broader audience.
The publishing office or department is responsible for ensuring its Drupal site and uploaded content are accessible. Any edits you make or materials you upload to the site must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. Documents are the most likely violators of accessibility guidelines, so make sure to run any uploaded documents through the appropriate accessibility-checking tools. The Office of Strategic Communications provides several resources you can use to ensure that your posted materials and Drupal site comply with these standards.
All Purdue Fort Wayne brand materials are created using the following brand guidelines, which incorporate accessibility into their design. See the Digital Color Matrix for examples of how our color combinations achieve Level AA compliance for text and backgrounds.
To add a video, you must provide the digital strategy team with a YouTube link and additional materials to ensure the video is accessible.
For videos with primarily static content, such as talking heads or a student playing the piano for an extended period, you must provide a typed transcript of all dialogue in the video. For an example of how to format a transcript, see the link below. Make sure to save the transcript as a .txt file. You can also refer to the suggested techniques from WCAG.
For any video more dynamic than that, you must edit the video to include a prerecorded audio description of all onscreen events, as described in the WCAG audio description guidelines.
Yes, you just need to provide the digital strategy team with the login credentials for your social media account so we can authenticate it using our social post aggregation tool.
Keep in mind that only images will appear in your social feed; videos will not be pulled automatically from social media and will not be accessible or include a transcript.
The Office of Strategic Communications uses several tools to ensure the accessibility of webpages and uploaded content. Siteimprove and WAVE both provide simple ways to check your Drupal site's accessibility. Both also assist with resolving any potential issues.
Any documents uploaded to your webpage, including Word, PDF, Excel, and PPT documents, must also meet accessibility standards. Tools for checking these files are available below.
If you have questions regarding accessibility standards and how to implement them on your Drupal site, consult the following resources.
The Office of Strategic Communications hosts weekly virtual office hours designed to address any questions you might have about publishing accessible content to your Drupal site. Office hours are held 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Friday. Email [email protected] to be invited to an upcoming session.
If you have additional questions that haven't been answered here, reach out to the digital strategy team at [email protected]