{"id":6735,"date":"2022-11-30T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/?p=6735"},"modified":"2026-01-13T15:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:24:06","slug":"ocr-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/webguide\/2022\/11\/30\/ocr-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal voluntary resolution agreement regarding digital accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this year, the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights opened an audit to review Boise State University\u2019s public facing digital content for accessibility. The audit included a review of the Boise State and affiliated websites, social media feeds, and other online and digital content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the course of that audit, Boise State entered into a voluntary resolution agreement which outlines the steps the University must take to ensure our boisestate.edu and affiliated public websites, social media feeds, online videos, marketing emails and the like are fully compliant with WCAG 2.1<\/a> Level AA standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implementing the agreement will support Boise State in its goal of publishing digital content that is fully accessible to individuals with hearing, vision, and manual disabilities and to comply with legal mandates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement requires the university to identify and remediate any accessibility barriers in our public facing digital content by summer 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our digital accessibility challenge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While we have all made tremendous strides in our accessibility efforts since 2016, there are many documents and videos throughout our sites that are not accessible to people with disabilities because of formatting issues, lack of transcripts, or missing captions preventing people with disabilities from accessing the content using screen readers or other assistive technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our public digital content must be accessible for all. Not only is this a legal requirement, it is the right thing for us to do and aligns with the Boise State University mission statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will work closely with departments to identify and implement solutions to make impacted content accessible. However, in some cases, content that cannot be made accessible, or does not have an accessible alternative, may be removed if necessary in order to achieve full compliance with federal law and university policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As outlined on Webguide, accessibility is the responsibility of everyone with an active Boise State WordPress account<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources and learning opportunities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Office of Information Technology provides several resources and learning opportunities to assist our campus community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n