OLC Creative Services does not enforce accessibility.
We compiled this information to promote a better understanding of the document accessibility policies all UTA employees are expected to follow.
Please contact EIR Accessibility with questions.
UTA: IT-PO-05 – UTA Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) Accessibility Policy
VI: All employees of the University are responsible for ensuring that the electronic and information resources they develop, procure, use, maintain, change, or prescribe are accessible to people with disabilities or have an approved exception on file with the EIR Accessibility Office.
Key Takeaway: Accessibility is everyone’s responsibility.
UTA: IT-PR-05 – UTA Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) Accessibility Procedure
6b: Electronic documents, including non-web electronic documents, and media elements must meet WCAG 2.0 AA…
6c: Examples of electronic documents include, but are not limited to: PDFs, PowerPoint files, Word files, video files, social media posts, job postings, announcements, emails, electronic magazine articles, and electronic flyers.
Key Takeaway: All documents must meet WCAG 2.0 AA criteria.
UTA: IT-PR-04 – UTA Web Standards Procedure
3a: … Documents and media elements (PDF’s, videos, etc.) published on UTA websites must meet relevant accessibility standards.
Key Takeaway: All documents must be accessible.
STATE: TAC 206.70 – Texas Administrative Code Institution of Higher Education Websites
(c) When compliance cannot be accomplished for an EIR, an alternative version of the page, form, application, document, or other EIR with equivalent information or functionality, must be provided to make a website comply with the provisions of this section. The alternative version must remain synchronized to the primary EIR and updated whenever the primary EIR changes.
Key Takeaway: Alternative versions must be provided if documents cannot be accessible.
STATE: TAC 213 – Texas Administrative Code Electronic Information Resources
This outlines the requirements for all electronic information resources – software, operating systems, multimedia, video, telecommunications, hardware, and more.
Key Takeaway: Accessibility is required.
FEDERAL: Section 504
“Title II requires that State and local governments give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all of their programs, services, and activities (e.g. public education, employment, transportation, recreation, health care, social services, courts, voting, and town meetings).“
Key Takeaway: State and local governments must provide equal access to services for people with disability.
FEDERAL: Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act
“… no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a State or local government entity.”
Key Takeaway: We cannot prevent others from participating in our services and programs with inaccessible content.
PDF/UA Requirements
from PDF/UA in a Nutshell
- Content is categorised in one of two ways: meaningful content, and artefacts such as decorative page elements. All meaningful content must be tagged and integrated into the structure tree of all tags within a document. Artefacts, on the other hand, need only be marked as such.
- Meaningful content must be marked with tags and, together with the other tags in the document, create a complete structure tree.
- Meaningful content must be marked with the appropriate semantic tags.
- The structure tree created by the document tags must reflect the document’s logical reading order.
- Only the standard tags defined in PDF 1.7 may be used; if any other tags are used, a role assignment entry must record which standard tag each one represents.
- Information may not be conveyed using visual means alone (e.g. contrast, colour or position on the page).
- No flickering, blinking or flashing content is permitted, either as effects controlled by JavaScript or as part of any videos embedded within the PDF.
- A document title must be given, and the document must be set up so that the title (rather than the file name) appears in the window title.
- The language of all content must be noted, and changes of language must be explicitly marked as such.
- Any pictorial elements – whether image objects or other non-text objects such as vector objects or object groups – must have corresponding alternative text.
(The PAC3 Checker is an automated PDF/UA compliance validation tool tests against the PDF/UA criteria.)