Perkins School for the Blind launches Perkins Access to help organizations comply with upcoming federal rules for digital accessibility

accessibility-policyA new resource from Perkins School for the Blind will help higher education institutions and other organizations become ready to ensure their digital content is accessible to those with special needs, as required by forthcoming federal rules.

The Perkins Access digital accessibility service is designed to help those organizations that lack in-house expertise to fully and adequately evaluate their digital assets and ensure they meet accessibility standards.

The service was spurred in part by the growing importance of online and digital communications in school and the workforce.

Perkins Solutions has built a set of digital accessibility services as part of its Perkins Access suite. The features are designed to help organizations address problems with accessibility and speed their progress to comply with mandates in the upcoming American with Disabilities Act (ADA) refresh and the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines updates that are in process.

Next page: How Perkins Solutions targets accessibility improvements

New federal rules are still in the works, but according to the National Law Review, there are multiple lawsuits resulting in settlement agreements that have already been brought against organizations including major retailers, e-marketers, tax preparers and several colleges and universities – all due to a lack of web accessibility.

“Perkins Access is all about making digital and physical spaces more accessible so that all users can benefit. And it’s about bringing organizations into compliance and protecting them from potential lawsuits,” said Cris Broyles, Perkins Solutions’ director of digital accessibility. “By making websites accessible, we not only create a more accessible world for individuals with disabilities, we make organizations more attractive to a broader audience.”

To gain a nationwide snapshot of college websites’ accessibility, Perkins Solutions looked at the online sites of 20 top colleges and universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report, and found that more than 90 percent failed to meet some or all of the guidelines that make websites accessible to disabled users.

Some universities, anticipating the new guidelines, and understanding the wider audience an accessible website brings, have already made changes. Harvard University and the University of Notre Dame each have engaged Perkins Solutions to improve the accessibility of their websites.

Using a team of tech experts who have a range of disabilities, along with a multi-faceted approach, Perkins Solutions provides assessments of digital properties, gives feedback and offers remediation to help customers get their websites up to date to avoid litigation.

For more information on Perkins Access, visit Perkins.org/access.

Material from a press release was used in this report.

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