Welcome to our Digital Accessibility Requirements and Resources page. In today’s digital age, ensuring that all users, regardless of their abilities, can access and engage with our content is more important than ever. Digital accessibility is not just a legal requirement. It’s also a commitment to inclusivity and equality. By making our digital content accessible, we are opening doors for everyone, including individuals with disabilities, to participate fully in our digital environment.
MoWest is committed to making our campus accessible. This means it is up to all of us to ensure we’re working to enhance usability, remove barriers, and create content in alignment with inclusive design best practices.
Legal Requirements and Compliance
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a new rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that strengthens requirements for digital accessibility across all state and local government services, programs, and activities. As a public institution of higher education, Missouri Western State University is required to comply with this rule.
In April 2024, the Department of Justice updated the standards for digital content at public institutions. By April 24, 2026, all digital content at MoWest must meet WCAG 2.1 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
Who is Responsible for Digital Accessibility at MoWest?
Everyone can contribute to a more inclusive, digitally accessible campus community. Learn more about your role in this effort:
Faculty: All digital materials in a course should be accessible, including any documents, videos, and assignments, and content from third-party vendors posted in Canvas or shared online.
Employees: All digital content created for MoWest, including MoWest webpages, social media, digital flyers, and online training materials.
Students: If you create content for a university office or post information on social media related to your recognized student organization (RSO), you must meet accessibility standards. For regular coursework, there is no legal requirement to apply these standards. However, learning how to make your work accessible will strengthen collaboration with peers and instructors and help you build transferable skills. Many workplaces also require digital accessibility, so developing these skills now can give you a professional advantage.
External Partners: If you develop any materials for MoWest, such as content for a microcredential course, you will need to ensure accessibility standards are met.
Helpful Resources
This website serves as a resource for faculty, staff and students seeking to create digitally accessible content. We’re continually publishing new resources and materials to assist you in this effort.
ADA and WCAG
Learn more about the law and how it pertains to us as a University
- ADA.gov Fact Sheet – A fact sheet covering what Title II Americans with Disability Act is and who needs to follow it.
- WCAG at a Glance – WCAG pertains to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This page offers a top-level view of those guidelines, as Title II of ADA requires us to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards at a minimum.
- WCAG 2.1 Quick Reference – A complete list of the WCAG guidelines for 2.1 compliance. Many sites do not and cannot meet AAA compliance. We must meet all criteria for Level AA.
Accessibility in Canvas
- Canvas Course Accessibility Checklist – Accessibility checklist for Canvas courses
- Canvas Training Course-Fundamentals of Accessibility – Free accessibility training course
- Canvas Tools and Resources – Overview of current tools used to access accessibility within Canvas
- Content Structure – Understanding proper header structure for screen readers to navigate
- Docs and PDFs – Formatting tools for documents and PDFs
- Images – Adding alternate text (alt text) to all images
- Videos – Captioning and transcripts for all digital media (audio and video)
Comprehensive Testing
These bring together a wide range of specific tools to check a variety of issues on a webpage and can be useful for both content creators and developers.
-
WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool by WebAIM, available for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
-
Siteimprove Accessibility Checker extension, check single pages including password-protected pages.
-
axe DevTools by Deque, Chrome extension, must be used in “Inspect” mode.
-
Accessibility Insights for Web by Microsoft, extension includes some automated checks, visualizing Tab stops, a guide for manual assessments, and can save a report.
-
ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector): a “favelet” or “bookmarklet,” not an extension, which will provide automated detection of accessibility issues, reveal what a screen reader should say for interactive elements, and give practical suggestions.
Checking Specific Aspects of Code and Content
-
HeadingsMap for Chrome or HeadingsMap for Firefox generates a document outline with headings.
-
Nu HTML Checker, an HTML validator from W3C. Note that valid code does not on its own guarantee accessibility, but invalid code can cause accessibility problems.
-
Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT) checks the rate of flickering and flashing content in videos (Windows only).
Checking Color Contrast
-
Contrast Checker by WebAIM, includes lightness sliders to adjust the colors to ones with sufficient contrast.
-
Colour Contrast Analyser by The Paciello Group, a separate application that can select colors using an eyedropper tool.
- Contrast Ratio by Lea Verou, calculates a contrast ratio range when both colors include translucency (alpha channel). Color values are in the page address bar, so they are easy to bookmark and share.
PDF Compliance and Checkers
-
Accessible PDF Standards – a guide by FlippingBook on how to make PDFs compliant with Accessibility Standards
- Free PDF Checker – A browser-based online tool where you can upload your PDF and it will check whether it’s compliant.
How to Request Accommodations or Modifications
Students
Accessibility Resource Center
Eder Hall 201
816-271-4330
arc@missouriwestern.edu
Faculty & Staff
Human Resources
Popplewell Hall 117
816-271-4587
humanresources@missouriwestern.edu
How to Report A Concern or Complaint
MoWest is committed to providing an accessible and welcoming environment for all. Despite our efforts, you may run into a barrier in our digital or physical spaces that hinders your experience. We want to remove any barriers, so please let us know how we can make our University more accessible.
If you would like to report a digital or physical accessibility issue or would like to provide any feedback, please use the form below. The University will review your request. Self-identification is not required to submit a report of an inaccessible website or webpage.
What Happens When I Report a Concern?
Within two weeks of filing, you will receive an acknowledgement of your report, if you have provided your contact information. This acknowledgement will include information about your report as well as the review process.
All reports are reviewed to determine if the identified accessibility barrier violates an applicable standard. Depending on the results of the review, the University will work to remedy the accessibility barriers and inform you when the remediation is complete.
Opportunities for Training
Training dates and topics coming soon.