Minnesota State Colleges and Universities by law and policy forbids discrimination against individuals with disabilities in providing services to the public or its constituencies. Because of the importance of access to electronic information and other Web based resources, MnSCU is committed to provide Web sites that are accessible pursuant to the standards set forth in Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act. Accordingly, all college or university sponsored Web pages or sites should be accessible to individuals with disabilities consistent with these standards. Such sponsored sites include primary college and university Web sites, department sites and online instructional materials.
The question you may be asking is what is meant by “accessible.”
To assist colleges and universities in developing accessible Web design practices, we have prepared a set of Web Accessibility Guidelines that we encourage you to consult and adopt as a set of best practices. The guidelines include both the Section 508 and the W3C Priority 1 standards. It is a work in progress; your input is very much appreciated.
College and universities must be able to demonstrate that we are engaged in a process to systematically improve accessibility of our electronic resources, including Web sites.
In practical terms, this means at the very least familiarizing yourself with the the Web Site Accessibility Guidelines, adopting them in part or in whole, and establishing a plan to make your web sites accessible. In addition, you are encouraged to implement as much of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative's guidelines as possible.
Contact sam.buchanan@so.mnscu.edu if you have any questions.
The current version of this document is available at http://webmasters.mnscu.edu/access/. Please submit corrections and suggestions to sam.buchanan@so.mnscu.edu.