What is 508 Compliance?
Section 508 is an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This amendment outlines the standards for websites and online services to eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities such as hearing and visual impairments.
Texas Wesleyan University has adopted the Section 508 standard for all content and media on https://txwes.edu as outlined in our Web Accessibility Policy.
How are we complying with Section 508?
As part of our commitment to our students and the Texas Wesleyan community, we’ve implemented policies and procedures that allow us to keep web accessibility at the forefront of everything we do online.
Not only do we incorporate web accessibility into our content contributor training, but we have additional resources and tutorials for web accessibility so users can stay familiar with how to make their content and sites web accessible.
Ultimately, all content goes through our standard content approval process where media, images in particular, is checked for all appropriate formatting and content is reviewed for accessibility. Once content is approved, it is published to the live website following our normal approval process.
What’s next for Texas Wesleyan University?
While web accessibility has always been a part of Texas Wesleyan University’s web-first approach to marketing and communications, we recognize that it’s an ongoing effort and no part of the web is ever truly "done."
As of May 30, 2018, we've formally adopted our Web Accessibility Policy and have rolled out training materials and integrated accessibility content approval processes. But that doesn't mean we're finished. New content arrives every day and as standards change and new technologies are created, we're constantly reviewing our policies to make sure we're at the forefront of accessibility. Currently, we're reviewing the WCAG 2.0 Level A and Level AA guidelines and what they mean for txwes.edu. At minimum, we should meet all Level A criteria, but we're constantly looking for ways to improve to meet Level AA standards which we hope to accomplish in the near future. Just one more way smaller is smarter.