A number of campus resources are in place to help support and improve your web experience.
You can submit a request for support.
See also campus resources, guidelines and policies.
Web Resources Site Feedback - We'd love to hear from you!
Policy 58 — Accessibility requires that UWaterloo web sites comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA.
Building your web site in the Waterloo Content Management System or UWaterloo Scholar is the easiest way to meet this requirement. For sites outside of these systems, read on.
As people finish making a new web site, they often ask for an accessibility check as a final step before launch. The usual result is that many accessibility issues are identified, leading to a costly redesign and a delayed launch. To avoid this, accessibility must be part of the development process from the beginning, not a check tacked-on at the end.
Web developers and designers need to be thinking about accessibility from the beginning of the design process. During rapid iteration, it is not necessary to fix every issue right away, but think about how you will address them. As designs begin to solidify, they need to be accessible designs.
Some accessibility checks are easy. You can start by doing these yourself.
If you don't understand the messages from these tools or how to fix them, ask for assistance. By starting accessibility checking early, the designers and developers will learn about accessibility techniques and apply that knowledge as they continue their work.
Accessibility remediation is taking an existing site and making it accessible. By its nature, accessibility remediation is a multi-step process: Assess the site for accessibility and identify a few issues. Fix these issues. Assess again, repeating the process until no further issues remain.
Remediation is done this way because fixing one issue can introduce or surface other issues. Always start with fixing HTML validation, then the errors identified by WAVE, then the warnings, and finally issues identified through manual assessment.
Generally speaking, all UWaterloo sites must be accessible. Password-protected sites that are restricted to only a few members of staff could be left inaccessible, but would need to be made accessible if an employee with a disability needs to use it. If a site is restricted to students registered in a particular course, then it may be left inaccessible and made accessible upon request if a student with a disability registers for the course.
A number of campus resources are in place to help support and improve your web experience.
You can submit a request for support.
See also campus resources, guidelines and policies.
Web Resources Site Feedback - We'd love to hear from you!
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.