Re: College Policies on Accessible Web Page Design

> Does your policy address services provided to your college web site by
> external vendors?

Your question is a good one. As it stands right now, our policy does not
directly address the issue of external vendors, and I thank you for
reminding me of the importance of this issue.

In our case, there are few instances of web content which has been handled
through external vendors. Nearly everything has been home grown. The most
significant exception to that statement is the use of Web CT in some online
courses. The use of Web CT has presented a dilemma in our task of drafting
accessibility policies. Web CT, as it is now, is not a disability-friendly
program. In fact, this program is one of the reasons why we decided to be
leniant with existing scripts and applets. The university has a lot of money
and effort tied into courses in that program. The problem is that our draft
does not prescribe a method for making sure that the Web CT content will--at
some point--be accessible. Even though we realized this when we wrote the
draft, the issue has not yet been fully resolved. Thank you for once again
bringing the question to the forefront.

I am likely to propose that all new contracts with external vendors include
an accessibility clause, and that provisions be made to somehow gradually
move existing scripts/applets in that direction. We'll have to figure out
the most appropriate wording, timeline, etc. for that kind of action.

Paul Bohman
Technology Specialist
Web Accessibility in Mind
Utah State University

----- Original Message -----
From: Kelly Ford <kford@teleport.com>
To: Paul Bohman <paulb@cpd2.usu.edu>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Monday, November 22, 1999 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: College Policies on Accessible Web Page Design

Received on Monday, 22 November 1999 17:06:29 UTC