What Is Accessibility?

Jason Carroll Updated by Jason Carroll

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities provides a succinct definition: Accessibility means access, on an equal basis with others, to (1) the physical environment, (2) transport, (3) information and communications (including information and communications technologies and systems), and (4) other facilities and services open or provided to the public, in both urban and rural areas. The key terms here are access and equal basis — making things available to everyone and giving them all the same benefits of that availability.

The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) protects the civil rights of people with disabilities in most areas of public life, including education. Cornell is obligated to comply with ADA regulations, which includes making reasonable accommodations to ensure accessibility for employees, students, and the general public.

As a unit at Cornell, eCornell is also bound by ADA regulations, but we seek more than compliance with the law. For eCornell, accessibility is a guiding philosophy that is in direct alignment with Cornell’s founding principle: “... any person … any study.” Our design and development efforts are motivated by that same goal of providing world class educational experiences for the widest possible range of learners, and this extends to ensuring that they are equally effective and usable for all students.

Because our work lives online, it’s naturally informed by best practices in web accessibility — in particular, the recommendations put forward and regularly updated by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that are collectively known as “WCAG” (Web Accessibility Content Guidelines). (WAI is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international community dedicated to ensuring the long-term growth of the Web.) Absolute and total compliance with these standards — that is, “100% accessibility” — is neither an achievable goal nor the ultimate point. Instead, we consistently strive toward increasing the accessibility of our content and making our products as universally accessible as possible, and we rely on these guidelines and our own in-house resources to help us get there.

How did we do?

Accessibility Resources

Contact