Cal State Universities Strive for Web Accessibility
As part of its Accessible Technology Initiative, the California State University (CSU) system will implement software from Nashua, NH-based HiSoftware to monitor the accessibility of its websites, Web content and Web applications for people with disabilities.
With 23 campuses and more than 440,000 students, the CSU system is the nation's largest public, four-year, higher-learning institution. It launched its imitative in January 2006 to ensure disabled students and staff could use CSU's information technology resources and to ensure all its campuses adhered to state and federal mandates.
“CSU has a strong commitment to full access for all people and is engaged in a systematic approach to ensure the accessibility of information technology on CSU campuses,” said CIO and Assistant Vice Chancellor of Information Technology Services at CSU David Ernst in a prepared statement.
The CSU system will use HiSoftware's AccMonitor and AccVerify to ensure and monitor its web accessibility, and will use those products' reporting features to communicate any accessibility issues to the right people and to then take the steps needed to remediate those issues, according to Mary Cheng, director of CSU’s Accessible Technology Initiative.
"We anticipate being able to achieve full Web site accessibility compliance within a few years,” Cheng added.
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David Kopf is a freelance technology writer and marketing consultant, and can be reached at [email protected].