Modesto Junior College is about good instruction and services. Providing equal access is an example of our commitment to serving our diverse community. Accessibility encompasses the development and creation of culture – emotional, physical, and intellectual in which persons with disabilities feel welcome, included, and valued. Accessibility also enables one’s ability to gain access to something. Modesto Junior College has provided accessibility environments and services for people with disabilities who use its services as students, faculty, and staff.
The Accessibility Plan was prepared for review and implementation in line with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) requirements and guided by ADA Accessibility Standards and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The mission of THE Accessibility Plan at Modesto Junior College is to empower people with disabilities, by reducing or eliminating barriers that may interfere with achieving their academic or career goals.
Modesto Junior College is committed to creating an environment that is accessible to all people, regardless of ability.
The goal of the Accessibility Plan is to describe the actions that Modesto Junior College will take to identify, remove, and prevent barriers to all people with disabilities accessing MJC websites. These actions benefit staff, faculty, and students of the college, as well as the community.
The Accommodations and Support Center (ASC) in cooperation with the Modesto Junior College web developers will serve as the Access Coordinator for the duration of this plan. It is the responsibility of the Access Coordinators to:
Accessibility Facilitators are responsible for conducting or managing a designee to conduct a quarterly review of the web content under their responsibility.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education defines accessibility as meaning when a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally integrated and equally effective manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. Visit the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights for more information.
All website content creators will be trained on accessibility and compliance requirements before getting access to make changes to websites. This document has a list of barrier descriptions and resources as a reference.
With assistance from the Office for Civil Rights, clear steps to remedy digital carriers to access and ensure online programs are accessible in compliance with Title II and Section 504. OCR has engaged in technical assistance to bring online services, programs, and activities of Modesto Junior College into compliance with the law. OCR released a 20-part video series covering topics such as how people with disabilities use technology, applicable Federal laws, and how to identify and remediate different types of technological barriers that can interfere with the ability of parents and students with disabilities to participate in modern American education. The video series intends to provide a basic introduction to many different digital accessibility concepts, such as fundamental manual testing techniques, the use of color, logical reading order, and meaningful video captions. Further, the Department of Education has announced that it intends to publish an NPRM to amend its Section 504 regulation to strengthen and protect the rights of students with disabilities. The link to the training videos and other available resources is at the end of this document.
Keyboard access: Can users access all functions and content, and complete all tasks, independently by using only the keyboard (<tab>, <enter>, <spacebar>, <esc>, and arrow keys)?
Logical reading order: Does keyboard navigation follow a logical, predictable order?
Skip links: Can keyboard-only users bypass long navigation menus, embedded social media feeds, etc., without having to use excessive tabbing?
Visual focus indicator: Can users visually track where they are located on the page while navigating with a keyboard?
Alternative (Alt) text: Are all important images and graphics labeled with meaningful text, associated captions, or adjoining descriptions so, for example, people who are blind and use assistive technology will have access to the relevant information contained in the image or graphic? For linked images, does the alternative text tell users where the link will take them, rather than describe the image?
Links: Are links well-named and unambiguous so users who are blind– without having to read nearby content – will understand the purpose and destination of each link? Common examples of ambiguous link names include “click here,” “read more,” “see all,” “http://…”-type, or “event notice,” and other ambiguous phrases.
Color alone: Are there any instances where color alone distinguishes an object or state? If so, add another way to distinguish the object or state. For example, make sure color is not the only way to distinguish link text from the surrounding paragraph text, and ensure color-coding is not the exclusive way used to convey important calendar dates (e.g., “no school” dates are marked in purple).
Tables: Does the page avoid using layout tables? If data tables are present, are they necessary to convey information, or could a more accessible means of presentation be considered instead? If a data table is used, is it simple, so no cells span multiple columns or rows? Are column and row headers programmatically labeled?
Buttons, form controls, and other operable elements: Are they labelled appropriately, both programmatically and visually? Do the visual labels continue to be properly associated with the elements when the screen is enlarged? If the elements have different states (such as form fields that are required for successful submission), are those conveyed by something other than color alone?
Heading Structure: Are headings programmatically labeled with a meaningful hierarchy, so people who are blind and using a screen reader can navigate a page according to its headings, listen to a list of headings, and skip to where they want to begin reading?
Embedded videos and slide carousels: Where there are embedded videos or carousels, if they launch or rotate automatically, is that behavior necessary? If so, can a user pause or stop the video or carousel, and later replay the video or carousel, with keyboard commands? The ability to stop the video or carousel rotation can be important, not just while users are on the video or carousel, but while they are in other parts of the page.
Magnification: Have you re-tested everything when content is magnified to the “point of reflow,” or in “responsive mode,” when the formatting changes to be more mobile-friendly (typically around 200% pm standard laptop screens)? Are all contents and all functionality preserved and useful?
Electronic Documents: Have you conducted an accessibility review of your documents using the software’s accessibility checker (e.g. “Check Accessibility” feature in Microsoft Word, “Accessibility Check” feature in Adobe Pro DC, etc.)?
Videos: Is captioning present or is a transcript available? Transcripts should only be used when the audio can be fully understood separately from viewing the video and does not reference video content.
Social Media Posts: If graphic images are used, are they accompanied by text that conveys the same information? If videos are used, are they accessible as described in the previous text?
To ensure that all users, including people with disabilities, have a good user experience and are able to access online content, the following is a list of resources to assist with website accessibility.
