IT Accessibility Guidelines

1. Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to campus units and individuals employed by Kapiʻolani Community College (Kapi‘olani CC) for fulfilling Kapi‘olani CC’s commitment to equal access to information technology (IT) and complying with UH Guidelines for Accessible Technology and Digital Media. Following the guidelines helps to ensure that people with disabilities have access to the same services and content that are available to people without disabilities, including services and content made available through the use of information technology.  IT procured, developed, maintained, and used by Kapi‘olani CC should provide substantially similar functionality, experience, and information access to individuals with disabilities as it provides to others.

2. Definition

Kapi‘olani CC has adopted the definition of “accessible” used by the U.S. Department of Education in resolutions with postsecondary institutions regarding civil rights complaints about the inaccessibility of their IT.

“Accessible” means a person with a disability is “afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability (source: Resolution Agreement: South Carolina Technical College System (pdf), OCR Compliance Review No. 11-11-6002).

3. Scope

IT covered by the guidelines supports administrative, research, and academic applications, including the following examples:

• Websites
• Video and audio content
• Electronic documents
• Desktop, mobile, and cloud-based applications
• Content and learning management systems
• Email and calendars
• Library resources
• Computers and peripherals
• Information kiosks, telephones, digital signs, and other electronic equipment
• Classroom technologies

4. Standards

Technologies and standards evolve at a rapid pace. Kapi‘olani CC looks to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), for guidance in meeting its IT accessibility commitments. WCAG 2.0 provides success criteria for measuring web accessibility, as well as provides useful metrics for products and services that are not specifically web-based. Where an IT product cannot be brought into compliance, campus units are responsible for providing an individual with a disability equivalent access.

5. Progress and Plan

Kapi‘olani CC has a lengthy history of proactively addressing IT accessibility issues. Its IT Accessibility Progress and Plan describes past efforts and future plans as it strives to ensure IT developed, procured, and used at Kapi‘olani CC is accessible to individuals with disabilities.