Digital Accessibility

Digital Accessibility and Colorado Law HB21-1110

Effective July 1, 2024

Colorado House Bill 21-1110 requires higher education institutions in the state to adopt policies and procedures ensuring that digital communications and information technology are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Beginning July 1, this bill makes it a civil rights violation for a government agency to exclude people with disabilities from receiving services or benefits because of a lack of accessibility. At CU Anschutz, it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that the content we create is accessible, providing equal access to digital materials for all.

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

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: March 27, 2025

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 2025 Digital Accessibility Efforts 

Our goal is to prioritize, assess, remediate, and continuously enhance every digital touchpoint across our services, programs, and activities to ensure digital accessibility. Below are the key digital accessibility improvement measures CU Anschutz is implementing in 2025, building on our 2024 initiatives. 

Digital Accessibility Standards and Guidelines 

In 2024, 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: 

Centralized Barrier Reporting and Accommodation Requests 

To streamline and optimize the submission of digital accessibility barriers and accommodation requests, CU Anschutz launched a centralized webpage. Users can report barriers or request accommodations through two methods: a form or by email. Both methods are triaged through a single centralized source, the Office of Information Technology Service Desk, enhancing efficiency and response times.  

In 2025, CU Anschutz is evaluating the overall barrier reporting and support process to identify opportunities for improving the user experience, with a focus on transparency and efficiency. 

New Campus Role: Digital Accessibility Program Manager 

The CU Anschutz Digital Accessibility Program Manager began work in January 2025 and is focused on:

  • Developing a long-term digital accessibility strategy.
  • Managing the digital accessibility program and serving as the main contact for digital accessibility on campus.
  • Collaborating 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 focus on increasing awareness of HB21-1110 and providing campus constituents with the necessary resources to ensure compliance. 

2024 Efforts:

  • Campus-wide Emails: Sent in May and October, sharing information about HB21-1110, its implications for all campus constituents, and available resources and training for digital accessibility compliance.
  • Digital Accessibility Website: Launched a centralized website for CU Anschutz, housing 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. 

2025 Efforts:

  • Website Expansion: Focus on expanding the Digital Accessibility website as a resource library with tutorials and best practices.
  • Engagement: Launching bi-monthly Digital Accessibility tips, and targeted presentations on requirements and best practices. 

Public Websites  

Website efforts focus on maintaining accessibility compliance on our public-facing CMS and enabling website content owners to remediate accessibility issues and proactively create accessible content.  

2024 Efforts:

  • Technology Development: Continued incorporating digital accessibility requirements into design, development, user experience, and quality assurance stages.
  • Siteimprove Implementation: Siteimprove enables website content owners to find, address, and report on accessibility issues across our CMS.
  • Dedicated FTE: Focused on Web Accessibility & Development, training and assisting 400+ website content owners.
  • Training: OIT Web Services & Web Development team held 23 weekly open labs for accessibility training and support. 

The above efforts continue in 2025, with additional actions completed:

  • Backend Improvements: Resolved issues flagged by Siteimprove, improved focus outline and Aria-label usage, and enhanced video thumbnails.
  • Sitewide Improvements: Improved heading structures and increased minimum font size to enhance readability and contrast.
  • Accessibility Reviews: Conducted pre-launch and ongoing accessibility reviews for new and existing websites.
  • Support Requests: Responded to 20+ direct support requests.
  • Siteimprove Engagement: Continuing to register site editors and increase engagement with resolving flagged accessibility issues, including outreach to all major schools and colleges.

Learning Management System & Digital Course Materials  

We are working with our primary learning management system vendor to ensure the technology’s accessibility. 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. 

2024 Efforts:

  • Training: Conducted live Digital Accessibility Trainings for 200+ faculty and staff across all program areas to build awareness and equip faculty and instructional designers with the necessary knowledge to ensure digital course content is accessible.
  • Anthology Ally: Tool available for flagging and reporting accessibility issues in course materials within our LMS.
  • Gap Analysis: Surveyed all programs areas to identify gaps in faculty support for instructional design and course development.
  • SensusAccess: Launched a self-service tool for converting documents into accessible formats, with consultations and trainings offered by CU Denver TIPS. 

2025 Faculty Support Efforts:

  • Consultations: Providing one-on-one consultations.
  • Training Sessions: Offering training on document accessibility, digital accessibility fundamentals, and course accessibility with Anthology Ally.
  • Resources: Providing video resources, companion guides, and checklists. 

Digital Communications Assets  

Our campus has both a centralized Office of Communications and communicators within various schools, colleges, and departments. CU Anschutz is dedicated to the accessibility compliance of our digital communications assets. 

2024 Efforts:

  • Guidelines: Created guidelines and FAQs for digitally accessible communications assets.
  • eComm Resources: Provided best practices to support accessibility compliance.
  • Template Updates: Reviewed and updated branded templates.
  • Monitoring: Active monitoring of email sends, live websites, and other digital communication items for accessibility.
  • Consultations: Held one-on-one meetings with departments and communications professionals to offer training, consultation, and guidance. 

2025 Efforts:

  • Monitoring: Continued active monitoring of digital communications for accessibility.
  • Consultations: Continued consulting with communication professionals on accessibility best practices.
  • Digital Asset Updates: Updated main university website, communications website, newsroom templates, university newsletter, email templates, presentation templates, and other digital templates for accessibility. 

Digital Signage  

2024 Efforts:

  • Standards: Created accessibility standards for digital signage.
  • Outreach: Communicated new standards.
  • Intake Process: Updated intake process to review and verify accessibility of new signage.
  • Vendor Compliance: Confirmed WCAG 2.1 A/AA compliance with vendor. 

2025 Efforts:

  • Expansion: Continued expansion of compliant and accessible digital signage assets, including templates. 

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 not previously been reviewed for digital accessibility compliance.  We maintain an inventory of applications and their level of compliance with WCAG 2.1 A/AA.  

2024 Efforts:

  • Inventory: Identified enterprise and high usage software (10,000+ users).
  • VPATs: Collected VPATs from 3rd party application vendors.
  • Compliance Review: Reviewed vendor documentation to determine current state of compliance.
  • User Experience: Enhanced reporting workflows for accessibility barriers and accommodation requests.
  • Ticketing System: Began discovery on replacing the ticketing system to meet accessibility requirements.
  • Vendor Management: Updated practices to include remediation plans for non-compliant vendors. 

2025 Efforts:

  • Planning: Developed a strategy for assessing the accessibility of enterprise and high impact software.
  • Assessment: Began in-depth assessments of prioritized software to document accessibility and work with vendors to remediate issues. 

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. 
  • Incorporated accessibility review 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.  

Contact

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

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