Digital Accessibility Standards
Virginia Tech is committed to ensuring that all individuals - students, employees, and community members - have equal access to digital spaces. Digital accessibility is both a legal requirement and an institutional value that supports full participation for all members of our community.
Every individual who creates, selects, maintains, or distributes digital content on behalf of Virginia Tech is responsible for ensuring that such content meets applicable accessibility standards.
Policy 7215
As part of this commitment, Virginia Tech adopted Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards in Policy 7215 Information Technology Accessibility. This standard aligns with both federal and state law and applies to all information and communications technology (ICT) that supports any university program, service, or activity, with very limited exclusions.
Standards
The accessibility technical standard for ICT is conformance with:
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA (WCAG 2.1 AA), and
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
ICT that Virginia Tech or its employees use, create, maintain, or procure should be conformant to these standards.
Key Elements
While WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508 provide comprehensive criteria, the following elements reflect common, high-impact accessibility practices applicable to most digital content:
Describe important images. Provide meaningful text alternatives (“alt text”) for all informational images, graphs, and charts. Decorative-only images that do not add information to the content of the page must be marked as decorative. Examples of decorative images may include images used for visual styling, such as borders, or images used solely to make content more visually attractive (“eye candy”). If a relevant image is part of a multimedia presentation, describe it verbally as part of the presentation or in the audio description track
Use properly nested, hierarchal headings to organize and describe content.
Verify that content appears in the correct reading order in documents, slide decks, forms, and web pages.
Provide – or select media that already have – accurate and synchronized captions for pre-recorded multimedia content and transcripts for audio-only content. These requirements apply regardless of content source, including third-party materials such as streaming media, course reserves, or textbooks.
Write meaningful link text that describes the link’s purpose instead of non-descriptive text like “click here.”
Test form fields and other interactive elements for keyboard accessibility. Often, you can do this by trying to navigate through content using only the tab and return keys, space bar, and navigational arrows.
Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning or distinguish information. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background for people to read comfortably.
Supplementary Standards
In some cases, additional accessibility standards or guidelines may be appropriate:
- When developing web content authoring tools, consult the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 is recommended to support the creation of accessible content.
- When procuring ICT, selection of products conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA is recommended, particularly for products intended for long-term use or broad deployment.
Procurement
All procured ICT falls within the scope of Virginia Tech Policy 7215 – Information Technology Accessibility. This includes but is not limited to:
- Commercial/“off-the-shelf” products
- ICT acquired through contracts or agreements
- ICT that students are required to use as part of a course, co-curricular activity, or extracurricular activity.
Contract Clause
Contracts for ICT must include the accessibility clause from the Digital Security Addendum. The most recent version of the Digital Security Addendum is available through Procurement.
Digital Accessibility Review
A digital accessibility review, with final approval by the Digital Accessibility Officer, is conducted as part of the procurement for applicable ICT.
Low cost/low risk items that will have no more than 1,000 users and does not include custom web development may not be required to undergo a formal review; however, purchasers remain responsible for confirming that products meet accessibility standards and comply with contractual accessibility requirements.
A request for accessibility information and the accessibility clause will be included as part of ICT solicitations. To avoid unnecessary delays, it is recommended that those communicating with vendors emphasize the importance of accessibility and include accessibility as an evaluated feature.
FAQ
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an umbrella term for technology used for the gathering, storing, transmitting, retrieving, or processing of information. ICT includes a wide range of technologies and formats, encompassing most software, hardware, and digital content.
Examples of ICT include but are not limited to:
- Web pages and websites, including SharePoint pages
- Social media content
- Native and web-based applications
- Mobile applications
- Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms
- Email communications
The vast majority of ICT will need to meet the technical accessibility standards. If it will be used by students, employees, or the community, it will most likely need to be accessible. Limited exceptions are:
Pre-April 2026
Content that meets all three of the following conditions is not required to proactively meet these standards; however, it must be remediated upon request:
- The content is clearly labelled as archived or is a social media post;
- The content has not been updated on or after April 24, 2026; AND
- The content is not used to access or participate in a university program, service, or activity.
Content that is part of an active course, training, or instructional experience does not qualify for this exclusion.
Personal use only
Content that is used solely for personal use and not shared with others is not required to meet these standards unless and until it is shared with others.
Virginia Tech has training and tools to help users create accessible content and learn about digital accessibility.
If users encounter a barrier in Virginia Tech ICT, they can submit a Digital Accessibility Barrier Report.
For compliance questions, contact either the ADA Coordinator, Beth Valentine, at bvalentine@vt.edu or the Digital Accessibility Officer, S.B. Chandler, at dao@vt.edu. You may also contact the ADA & Accessibility Services office at adaaccess@vt.edu or 1-540-231-0897.
For questions regarding web accessibility, please contact the lead accessibility developer in CRCPE at egabby@vt.edu.
For questions on how to make course content, documents, and slide decks accessible, please schedule an online consultation with TLOS.