Photo courtesy of stonehill.edu
By Anastasia Pumphrey
Stonehill recently gave its website more than just a face lift — College officials say that the website is more accessible to those with disabilities now than it ever has been before.
The College rolled out its new website on February 3, and since then it has received lots of feedback, including questions of why the changes were initiated in the first place. Attorney Thomas Flynn, vice president and general counsel, said “we received a complaint from the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights concerning website accessibility” in 2018, however, the changes had already been proposed prior to this complaint. Flynn explained that the changes were not a result of the complaint, although he said that this change gave the College the opportunity to address some of the complaints about the website’s accessibility.
“In May of 2018, we entered into a voluntary resolution agreement and came up with a plan to make the website more accessible,” Flynn said. He said that the College hired outside experts from a company called Level Access to ensure the website met Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), a standard he said most colleges are now striving to meet that was set up by W3C, or Web Accessibility Initiative.
“Some of this is happening behind the scenes, and other things will be noticeable right away like captioning on videos,” Flynn said.
Director of Marketing Shane LaPrade said, “the site has been made more accessible to those with disabilities that affect hearing and visual impairments,” in particular. These changes include screen readers, color contrast, and closed captioning on videos. He explained that screen readers do exactly what they sound like—read the screen for someone with visual impairments, and that using contrasting colors makes words easier to see on a screen.
“We also created the new website to better highlight Stonehill’s brand messaging and visual identity to make it easier for prospective students and families to understand what we value as an institution and the importance of making an impact in the lives of others,” LaPrade said. Both he and Flynn pointed out that a large part of the website overhaul was because of the College’s goal to be more inclusive.
“Moving forward we are trying to make sure we are making the site as accessible as possible – not only because it is a legal requirement but, more importantly, because it makes the College a more inclusive place,” Flynn said.
In light of the recent pandemic, the website’s accessibility to both current students, faculty, staff, and their families as well as prospective students and their families has become even more important. The website serves as Stonehill’s online hub to give its community information both on the coronavirus but also on how processes like admission and financial aid are being carried out.
For more information, please visit the website at www.stonehill.edu.
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