Technology Committee approves digital accessibility policy, forwards it to governance committee

The Public Universities Board of Trustees Technology Committee voted May 19 to approve a digital accessibility policy and advance it to the board’s governance committee for final consideration.

“...this is something that we are being, you know, we are being tasked to do that has happened because of legislative changes,” Chair Regent Sherry Yang said when introducing the item. She asked committee staff to proceed with the policy as part of required compliance work.

CIO Michael Mondrain said federal guidelines around digital accessibility have tightened and that the policy attempts to codify where the system needed to be consistent with the new guidance. “It’s not codifying anything that we shouldn’t have been doing…[but] it is codifying things that were not being done uniformly across the entire system,” Mondrain said.

Committee members raised several operational questions: whether volunteers and transient visitors are covered (the policy references the “general public,” which Mondrain said likely includes volunteers) and whether the work can be completed with existing staff. Mondrain said responsibilities largely fall to existing staff, acknowledged additional effort will be required, and characterized the change primarily as an enforcement and uniformity issue rather than a wholesale standards change.

After discussion, a motion to approve the policy was moved and seconded, members voted in favor, and the committee approved sending the policy to the governance committee for final consideration.

Next steps: the governance committee will review the policy for final action; system office staff will communicate requirements and continue operational coordination with campus web and content teams.