Custom Development @ Cornell

Need help making sure that your future, or existing, website is accessible? Deploying a new custom application and want to make sure it is accessible to all members of your audience? The team at Custom Development is your Cornell partner to make sure your website and apps are created with accessibility in mind. In addition to being a full service web and app development team, the staff at Custom Development can test your project on a variety of platforms to ensure usability for a wide range of users, including those who use a screen reader.

Tools for testing web accessibility: Siteimprove and more

Web development best practices include bringing your website to level AA conformance based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Additional manual testing will help identify the remaining issues. Siteimprove is available at no cost by staff and faculty for websites related to official university business, or in support of the university mission.

By using the Siteimprove Accessibility tool, you can identify many common web accessibility issues found across sites. Additional manual testing will help identify the remaining issues. The Web Accessibility team from Custom Development can be hired to perform manual testing. The Web Accessibility team also offers training  so that you can learn to do the testing on your own.

Learn more at IT@Cornell web accessibility.

Web Accessibility Support for Faculty

The Center for Teaching Innovation has created the CTI Accessibility Guide to help faculty make their courses more accessible. Take a look at the guide and reach out to CTI if you need more information or support.

Web Accessibility Trainings

The Web Accessibility team in CIT currently offers the following web accessibility trainings:

Instructor-Led

For the schedule of instructor-led trainings, please see the Current IT Workshops and Classes page on IT@C.

Web Accessibility Basics

This 1-hour course serves as a general introduction to web accessibility. It starts by covering different disability types and how they are supported by web accessibility, then moves on to discuss US laws related to web accessibility. It ends with an introduction to the most widely recognized web accessibility standard, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, which serves as the web accessibility standard for Cornell University.

Web Accessibility at Cornell University

This 1-hour course introduces participants to web accessibility initiatives and practices at Cornell. It introduces Cornell’s main web accessibility policy, Policy 5.12, and Cornell web accessibility team. It them moves on to give an overview of the responsibilities different members of the Cornell community have for ensuring that websites and applications are and remain accessible. The course finishes with an explanation of the university’s processes for evaluating, remediating, and tracking the accessibility of university websites and vended products used by units across the organization.

Web Accessibility Testing I: WCAG Checklist & Automated Tools

This 1-hour course introduces participants to automated tools that help with web accessibility testing, including the Custom Development WCAG Checklist spreadsheet for recording test findings. Automated tools demonstrated include Siteimprove, WAVE, Deque’s Axe, and ANDI. No knowledge of front end web development is needed.

Web Accessibility Testing II: Manual Testing

This 1-hour course introduces participants to the manual testing techniques that complement the automated testing tools discussed in Web Accessibility Testing I, including color contrast testing, keyboard checks, screen reader testing, and more. No knowledge of front end web development is needed.

Making Content Accessible: Websites

This 1-hour course discusses ways that non-developer content creators can make their contributions more accessible. Participants will learn about adding accessible structure using the rich text editor, how to write effective alternative text, and how to make media such as videos and audio accessible. The course will also introduce a few simple tools and methods for testing content for accessibility.

Vetting Vended Products for Web Accessibility

This 1-hour course goes over the basics of vetting vended products for accessibility at a range of steps in the procurement process, from initial investigation to accessibility testing in a sandbox environment. Participants will learn about current accessibility reporting documents such as accessibility statements, VPATs, and ACRs, and about red flags to look for on vendor sites. The course will also provide participants with sample questions to ask vendors about their products and accessibility QA processes, as well as demonstrating some basic accessibility testing processes and tools.

Multimedia Accessibility: Videos

This 1-hour webinar examines accessibility supports for synchronized media, aka what most of us think of simply as “videos.” We’ll go over topics such as the different kinds of captions, what audio descriptions are, how transcripts can be included near the video, why you should use both audio description and descriptive transcripts, and discuss video players that can make it easier to include all the required accessibility supports in one embed. No knowledge of front-end web development is needed to participate fully.

Web Accessibility Deep Dive: Keyboard Testing

This 1-hour webinar focuses on the importance of keyboard functionality to web accessibility support. Participants will learn how broad a range of functionality is included, who is helped by keyboard functionality, and see a demonstration of testing for keyboard functionality.

CU Learn

CU Learn self-guided courses are in development!