What does this mean for the university community?

Our campus embodies a culture of commitment and understanding, recognizing that all individuals should be able to access digital content. CU Anschutz actively promotes inclusivity and accessibility for all members of our community, including employees, students, as well as prospective employees and students. In addition, each department, school and college is responsible for making their content accessible. Each campus entity will be responsible for any fines related to accessibility violations identified after July 1, 2024.

The Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology has established rules regarding accessibility standards. The office has outlined the following penalties for noncompliance:

• A court order requiring compliance;
• Monetary damages;
• Attorney’s fees; or
• A statutory fine of $3,500 payable to each plaintiff for each violation, who must be someone from the disability community. For example, after the July 1, 2024, deadline, if an individual tries to use a website that is not accessible, the government entity may be subject to a $3,500 statutory fine that is payable to the individual for each violation. 

HB21-1110 Colorado Laws for Persons with Disabilities Resources

• Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology HB21-1110 FAQs
• Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology Technology Accessibility Rules
• Plain Language Guide to the State Technology Accessibility Rules

Resources

For support and guidance on adhering to HB21-1110 and our digital accessibility policy, please visit our Digital Accessibility Standards and Resources page, linked below.

CU Anschutz Resource List for Digital Accessibility

Roadmap to Digital Equity: Digital Accessibility Progress Report

Last updated: December 19, 2024

CU Anschutz Digital Accessibility Statement

The university is committed to upholding the principles of Colorado House Bill 21-1110, ensuring that people with disabilities have equal, available and reliable access to the university’s services, digital content and technologies. Our promise extends to all aspects of accessibility, encompassing both technology and our people. The CU Anschutz community is collectively responsible for ensuring that the technologies we choose, use, and create are fully accessible, in alignment with the requirements of the bill. This commitment underscores our dedication to fostering an inclusive and accessible environment for all members of our campus community.

Key 2024 Digital Accessibility Efforts

Our goal is to prioritize, evaluate, remediate, and continuously improve every digital touchpoint within our services, programs, and activities for digital accessibility. Below, you’ll find some of the key digital accessibility improvement measures that CU Anschutz has completed in 2024. 

Digital Accessibility Standards and Guidelines
The CU Anschutz Digital Accessibility Task Force developed digital accessibility standards and guidelines with the intent of providing enterprise standard configurations for technologies which provide service to those with disabilities, in accordance with the technical standards provided by: 

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA or higher 
• Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Chapters 3,4,6
• and following C.R.S. 24-85-101 to 24-85-104, ARTICLE 85 
  

Centralized Barrier Reporting and Accommodation Requesting Page

In an effort to streamline and optimize the way users can submit digital accessibility barriers or request accommodations, CU Anschutz has launched a centralized webpage to do so. Users can request accommodations or report a barrier via two methods: a form or by email. On the back end, both the form and email get triaged through one centralized source, the Office of Information Technology Service Desk, enabling increased efficiency and time to respond.

New Campus Role: Digital Accessibility Program Manager

CU Anschutz has received funding to hire a new Digital Accessibility Program Manager. This role starts in January 2025, and will:

• Develop a long-term digital accessibility strategy.
• Manage digital accessibility program and service as the main contact for digital accessibility on campus.
• Work with campus partners to ensure compliance with relevant laws.

Key responsibilities include:

• Updating and sharing digital accessibility standards and resources.
• Managing a plan to remove accessibility barriers in technology, with regular updates on progress.
• Providing accessibility advice and requirements for all technology.
• Offering training and resources to faculty and staff, including a dedicated website.
• Tracking and resolving reported accessibility issues.
• Monitoring regulatory changes and coordinating with agencies.
• Reviewing and reporting on the program's effectiveness to campus leaders.

Campus Communications 

Campus-wide communication efforts expanded in 2024, focusing on increasing awareness of HB21-1110 and providing campus constituents with the necessary resources to ensure compliance. These efforts included:

• Two campus-wide emails sent in May and October 2024, sharing information about HB21-1110, its implications for all campus constituents, and available resources and training to support digital accessibility compliance.
• The launch of a new centralized Digital Accessibility website for CU Anschutz, which houses information about HB21-1110 and a comprehensive repository of resources for making course materials, documents, captioning/audio descriptions, digital signage, websites, eComm materials, and procurement processes accessible.

Public Websites 

We have integrated the following activities to maintain compliance on our public-facing CMS: 

• Continued to incorporate digital accessibility requirements into our technology development stages including design, development, user experience, and quality assurance. 
• Implemented Siteimprove as an enabling tool to find, address and report on accessibility issues across our CMS.
• Dedicated FTE focused on Web Accessibility & Development to sustain accessibility foundationally in the CMS as well as train and assist 200+ website content owners.  
• OIT Web Services & Web Development team holds weekly open labs for training and support to ensure support to content owners. The number of trainings this year is 23.

Learning Management System & Digital Course Materials 

We are working with our primary learning management system vendor to ensure accessibility of the technology itself, and CU Anschutz is committed to training teaching faculty on creating accessible digital content for courses and utilizing the enabling tool, Anthology Ally to support the effort. Additional efforts toward compliance include: 

• Live Digital Accessibility Trainings held for all program areas for 200+ faculty and staff to build awareness and enable faculty and instructional designers the knowledge needed to ensure digital course content is accessible.  
• Anthology Ally available for accessibility flagging and reporting on course materials in our LMS. 
• Surveyed all program areas to analyze and identify gaps in faculty support for instructional design and/or course development. 
• Launched SensusAccess to campus, a self-service tool that converts documents into a range of digital accessible alternative formats. 1:1 consultations and routine trainings offered to support users. 

Digital Communications Assets 

Our campus has both a centralized Communications Office as well as several communicators that work within the various schools, colleges, and departments across campus. To support accessibility compliance of digital communications assets, CU Anschutz has: 

• Created guidelines for communications digital assets and FAQs for digitally accessible communications assets. 
• eComm resources to support accessibility compliance. 
• Reviewed and updated existing branded templates. 
• Active monitoring of current email sends, live websites, and other digital communication items to ensure they are accessible. 
• 1:1 meetings with departments and communications professionals to offer training, consultation, and guidance. 

Digital Signage 

The following activities were completed: 

• Created accessibility standards for digital signage. 
• Outreach and communications on new standards. 
• Updated intake process for new digital signage to verify accessibility has been reviewed on new signage. 
• Worked with vendor to confirm WCAG 2.1 A/AA compliance.  
• University Communications continues to expand compliant and accessible digital signage assets, including templates that ensure adherence to accessibility requirements.

High Use Technology 

CU Anschutz has a myriad of third-party applications being used across campus with decentralized ownership and maintenance. We have identified the highest use technologies that had previously not been reviewed for digital accessibility compliance.  As a part of this effort, we have an inventory of applications and their level of compliance with WCAG 2.1 A/AA.  

• Identified enterprise and high usage software (10,000+ users) 
• Collected VPATs from 3rd party application vendors. 
• Reviewed vendor documentation to determine current state of compliance. 
• Enhanced user experience for reporting accessibility barriers via documented workflows including any requests for accommodations, as necessary. 
• Began discovery on replacement of ticketing system that meets accessibility requirements. 
• Updated vendor management practices to include remediation plans when existing vendors do not meet required compliance. 
• Training efforts focused on increasing vendor management for service owners have begun and will continue through 2025.

IT Procurement

Effective July 2024, technology purchased by the campus is reviewed for compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA. It is the responsibility of the department that is acquiring or purchasing technology to ensure that the technology and all content are compliant with the digital accessibility law. The following activities have been completed at CU Anschutz to integrate accessibility checks into our technology procurement processes.  

• Created a Procuring Accessible IT Guide for CU Anschutz purchasers to review best practices. 
• Accessibility review has been incorporated into the technology risk assessment review service provided by Information Strategy and Services, Risk and Compliance team (e.g., "Application Assessment" process). Supporting efforts included: 
  • Developed process for risk assessment of VPAT/VACR documents including a process workflow diagram for reviews. 
  • Implemented a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) tool to standardize the technology review process including a repository of assessment, VPAT/VACR documents, and analyze and test VPAT/VACR capabilities in the GRC tool.
  • Provided visibility into the process for customers, partners, and vendors with open communication at each interval of the assessment process. 
  • Identified supplemental informational resources that promote and support digital accessibility. 
  • Developed a website (requires SSO authentication) for sharing information and resources with requestors and vendors.
  • Provided digital accessibility training to Risk and Compliance team members. 

For any questions or inquiries regarding this progress report, please reach out to DigitalAccessibility@cuanschutz.edu.