Texas State University’s IT division strives to promote accessible websites and accessibility best practices across the university. As part of that aim, the division held its third iteration of the Website Accessibility Rodeo yesterday in Alkek Library.
During the rodeo, between 25 to 40 website editors were invited to participate and had the opportunity to learn about the importance of accessibility, and the value it places on information sharing. The rodeo is a partnership between the IT division, the Office of Disability Services (ODS) and faculty and staff website managers and editors across the university.
Rori Sheffield, the director of Learning Applications Solutions, one of the groups in the IT Division that manages the university’s web content management system, Gato, said the goal of the rodeo is to make websites across Texas State more accessible.
“What that really means is that information sharing across Texas State meets the needs of not only sighted viewers, but also individuals interacting with our resources who are hard of hearing, deaf, blind or visually impaired,” she said.
During the event, staff from the IT Division and ODS assisted editors with their sites and helped them make their sites more accessible.
“We really help them learn how to–from a technical perspective, use the tools in Gato and across the university to make their content, images and videos more accessible,” Rori said.
To help all website editors in the university create more accessibile websites, the IT division’s web team created an online web accessibility guide. The guide explains key components and best practices of creating accessible websites and is a useful resource to site editors.
