Digital Accessibility

Digital Content for Everyone

Digital accessibility involves designing websites, tools, technologies, and documents so that everyone, including people with disabilities, can use them easily. It ensures that content can be navigated with screen readers, accessed via keyboard, and understood by individuals with different visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive needs.

Some accessibility features include:

• Alt text for images
• Keyboard-only navigation
• High-contrast modes and resizable text
• Captions and transcripts for videos
• Clear, consistent layouts
• Simple language

Accessibility benefits everyone, whether they use assistive technology or prefer a more user-friendly experience. At Northeast State Community College, we're committed to continually improving our digital accessibility to better serve all students, visitors, and employees.

Digitally Accessible Future

Northeast State Community College supports the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Accessibility Initiative, ensuring compliance with legal standards, including Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508.

Northeast State’s core values—respect, responsibility, and responsiveness—guide the College’s approach to digital accessibility.

• We will respect the diversity of our educational community and understand that expanding inclusivity is paramount.
• We will act with responsibility in expanding the digital access to our educational resources.
• We will be responsive to the educational needs of not only our students and employees but also our community at large.

Digital content is evaluated for accessibility based on WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.

Digitally Accessible Materials

Considering accessibility when creating documents makes implementation easier. Always aim to design with accessibility in mind, whether it's a course page, a document, a presentation, or a form.

Discover key resources to assist in developing inclusive and accessible digital content, including documents, forms, social media, and PDFs—from foundational principles to platform-specific instructions.

• Digital Accessibility Basics: Tips for creating accessible content that can be applied to webpages, documents, presentations, and even social media. This is a good place to start!
• Microsoft Office Accessibility: Help with creating accessible Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files.
• PDF Accessibility: Help with using Acrobat Pro to make PDF files accessible.
• Forms Accessibility: Help with creating accessible forms in Word, PDF, and DocuSign.
• Social Media Accessibility: Best practices for creating inclusive posts, images, videos, and hashtags across platforms.

Quick Links

Here are some additional links to resources that can help with digital accessibility.

• Digital Accessibility Training at Northeast State YouTube playlist: Explore videos of training sessions held and videos created based on identified needs.
• TBR Accessibility Training Resources: TBR hosts monthly accessibility training sessions, and the recordings are posted on their website. Check back each month for new titles.
• WCAG 2.1 Level AA: This page shows all the success criteria we are using. It aims to explain the criteria and help you understand how to meet the criteria.

Northeast State faculty and staff may schedule a meeting with Lori Rapp, Coordinator of Distance Education and Digital Accessibility, for additional assistance with making content digitally accessible.