Web Accessibility

What is Accessibility?

If you’ve heard that you have to make your website and content accessible (and it’s true, you do!), you may have been confused by what that means, or intimidated by how big a project it might seem. You may even wonder if you really need to make the effort (again, yes, you do!). Let’s explore some of the relevant issues surrounding web accessibility.

How can I be sure my website is accessible?

Web Services provides web editors with access to DubBot, a web-based tool that scans and analyzes Providence College web pages for quality. All web editors must complete DubBot training, and will receive regular updates about their site’s health.

Learn More about DubBot

Why create accessible content? 

Most importantly, it is the right thing to do, and it is consistent with the values of our institution. 

Second, it only makes sense – when you create web content, you’re creating it for other people. It’s important that other people, all other people, have access to that content, no matter what tools they use to navigate the web. It can only benefit you to make your message available to as many interested visitors as you can. 

And finally, there are consequences for having inaccessible content. It exposes the College to both reputational and legal risk. 

Types of Users

(adapted from UK Home Office Digital, Data and Technology) 

How to test your site’s accessibility, and where to go if you have questions 

Providence College provides web editors with access to the premium Quality Assurance tool Dubbot. Dubbot is available to all web editors, and we are happy to provide you with training and access after watching a training video and completing a quick certification quiz. 

Dubbot also has great resources and documentation on web accessibility in general, and its platform in particular. 

If you have any questions about your site’s accessibility, please reach out to the web accessibility coordinator. 

Guides & Tutorials

Looking for specific information about how to create accessible content? We’ve created a few guides below.

External Guides

There is lots of great information available for content creators and accessibility.

• The W3C, the web standards body, has also created some great educational content on accessibility.