From awareness to action: digital accessibility at Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU) considers inclusion to be important. This means you also need to be digitally accessible across all your channels, says Wouter Dielesen, senior communications advisor at UU. The university has already achieved impressive results in this area. Wouter discusses their approach, the challenges they’ve faced, and where they currently stand in terms of accessibility.
A lecture on accessibility organized by the UU’s webmaster sparked Wouter’s interest. “That’s when I thought: we need to do something with this too. That was the starting point for making our channels accessible.” UU has various online channels. These include the main website, the intranet, a separate site for students, and a WordPress environment with several smaller websites. Social media and video content are also included in their approach.
Investing in technology and people
“We’re focusing on two pillars to become more accessible. On the one hand, we’re working on technology. The websites we manage now meet accessibility requirements from a technical standpoint. I’m very proud of that. On the other hand, we’re investing in our editors. There are many of them, because we have quite a few online channels and a decentralized editorial model,” Wouter explains.
Five training sessions have been offered in recent years. Each session consists of five training modules:
- focused on awareness,
- on accessibility and text,
- on accessible images and visualizations,
- on video and social media,
- on documents, particularly PDFs.
“The latter is important not only for editors, but for the entire organization. Because PDFs come to us from all parts of the organization. The biggest challenge is making all those documents accessible. We haven’t succeeded yet, but we’re working toward it.” To achieve this, the first step is to determine whether a PDF is actually necessary. “In roughly 80% of cases, an HTML page is perfectly fine. Our CMS is designed so that it’s easy to publish information in an accessible way. We’ve added help texts in our CMS so you can see which heading to use for your subheadings or when to use alternative text. Often, that isn’t even necessary, because the image is decorative.”
“The content has become much more accessible”
In addition to the training offerings, UU also shares information internally via the intranet. Here, employees can find everything covered in the training sessions. “For example, what to keep in mind when posting an image, creating a PDF, or publishing a news article. That information is always available and is frequently consulted.”
Because UU has a lot of content, Wouter uses data to prioritize. “For example, the information about our botanical gardens gets a lot of traffic. I analyzed that landing page and looked at where there was room for improvement in terms of accessibility. I shared tips and ideas with the editors of that landing page. After that, they made significant improvements. Many visitors from outside the university come here, so it’s great that this information is now much more accessible.”
Awareness is a huge motivator
Accessibility is increasingly being embraced within the organization. Wouter: “The training sessions, in particular, are helping to bring the topic to the forefront. The awareness training has the greatest impact. When people see how a blind person gets stuck on the internet, even on major companies’ website, it really sparks their interest. You genuinely lose people if your site isn’t accessible. For us, that can’t be directly quantified in monetary terms, but ultimately, you don’t want to exclude anyone.”
For many organizations, getting accessibility on the agenda is a challenge. “Making your systems accessible costs money. And investing in editors’ knowledge takes time. Those factors play a role in how quickly you can embed accessibility. Moreover, we’re dealing with budget cuts. At the same time, accessibility aligns with our values. We want to be inclusive and diverse, so we must ensure that accessibility is also guaranteed.”
For educational institutions like UU, accessibility is also a legal obligation. “That was unclear for a long time, but I understand from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations that we do indeed have to comply as an educational institution. While we are not a fully government-run institution, we are largely funded by public money. That is why we must comply. All Dutch universities are working on this issue. When we talk to other universities, we often hear that UU is a leader in accessibility. That’s positive, and I’m also proud of where we stand today.”
Previously, UU focused on the obligation to include everyone. “But that also creates resistance. We’re now focusing on the positive aspects, because there are many. For example, accessibility improves discoverability, allows you to reach a broader audience, and ensures you exclude no one. Focusing on the benefits rather than the policy side is the most important lesson we’ve learned in recent years.”
Embedding accessibility in everything you do
Although the UU has already taken many steps, there are certainly still areas for improvement. “The ideal scenario would be to embed accessibility into our policies. That way, the entire organization would be fully aware of its importance, because it matters to all departments. It should be an integral part of everything we do. I think we’re already doing quite well, but there’s always room for improvement.”
What tips does Wouter have for other organizations? “Start with audits. Identify what isn’t working yet. You’ll see that you can usually make your content accessible quite easily. So stop using sliders that move, videos that autoplay, and text in all caps. In addition to the audit, make sure the people working on the website receive at least some awareness training. So they know why they’re doing it. These steps alone will take you a long way.”
