AHEAD’s Commitment to Digital Accessibility

The Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD) is committed to providing accessible programming and creating accessible environments. The Board of Directors and Staff recognize that design is powerful in terms of its ability to promote or limit full participation and inclusion. In a step toward achieving disability justice, we, as an organization, must work together to design for accessibility.

Digital accessibility involves designing websites, mobile applications and electronic documents in a way that affords disabled people the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as nondisabled people in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.

We strive to design and purchase web resources that conform to the most current web standards and to follow current accessibility standards in the creation of documents and other digital media. We invite comments or concerns about the accessibility of any of our resources to be directed to AHEAD@ahead.org.

Over the past few years, we have demonstrated our increased commitment to digital access in the following ways:

  • Providing resources to presenters.
  • Checking resources for accessibility and remediating as necessary.
  • Conducting regular checks and updates of www.ahead.org.
  • Hosting in-service training for AHEAD staff.
  • Increasing the number of conference sessions related to digital access.
  • Contracting with external experts to provide accessibility consulting services to AHEAD and our members.

Shared Commitment and Responsibility

The Board of Directors and staff recognize that because much of AHEAD’s programming resources are developed by members and other invited presenters, the commitment to accessibility must be a shared one. We invite AHEAD presenters and other content creators to join us in this charge.

Over the next few years, we will be raising the standards for content that is shared with our membership. To achieve this, we ask presenters and other content creators to follow current accessibility guidelines in the materials they develop and share.

We are committed to providing support to content creators through:

  • Creating a presenter’s toolkit.
  • Providing more opportunities to learn about digital access.
  • Providing support to members to assist them in meeting AHEAD’s accessibility standards.

Together, we believe we can create a more equitable experience for all of our members and others who interact with AHEAD materials and content.