Global Accessibility Day: An Interview with UofG’s Digital Accessibility Resource Centre

Global Accessibility Awareness Day falls on May 15 this year and encourages people around the world to think and learn about digital access and inclusion. It is important to recognize those who live with disabilities and impairments and how inaccessible web content can be a barrier to their knowledge and access. Digital accessibility refers to the right for people with disabilities and/or impairments to consume and interact with digital content. Digital accessibility can refer to alt-text on images for users who are blind or have low-vision, captioning for users who are hard of hearing or deaf, adaptive hardware for those with motor impairments to navigate computers and mobile technologies, and cognitive accommodations for those with learning disabilities or impairments.  

This year, the Live Work Well Research Centre reached out to Aleshia Armstrong from the University of Guelph’s Digital Accessibility Resource Centre (DARC) for an interview. We wanted to learn more about digital accessibility and the work DARC does to maintain and promote it.  

What sort of work does DARC do and who do they work with? 

Our work focuses on helping the university promote and maintain accessible digital content for everyone. We offer training and workshops on a variety of accessibility topics, including creating accessible documents, social media content, and web pages. Another part of our role involves auditing websites to comply with Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)  and collaborating with teams to address and remove accessibility barriers. We also support limited document remediation and provide guidance to help people learn how to create accessible content independently. While we primarily work with staff, we also assist faculty and students who have questions about making their content more inclusive and accessible. 

In addition, every two years the university is required to complete an AODA compliance report. Our team contributes to this process by reviewing the accessibility of university websites and social media accounts, and by working closely with various departments to support them during the review. 

What are some primary accessibility tools that are often implemented? 

There are many free and effective tools available to help review digital content. Some of the tools we recommend include the following:  

• Accessibility Insights: an online extension that helps web developers find and resolve accessibility issues in applications and websites. 

• ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector): an accessibility testing tool that suggests modifications to make content more accessible.  

• CCA (Colour Contrast Analyzer): a tool that analyzes the contrast level between colours on a webpage to determine if they are accessible for colour-blind or low vision users.  

• Mauve++ (Multi Automated User-friendly Verification Environment): an extension that evaluates the HTML and CSS code of a website to evaluate its accessibility. 

• WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool): a database of web evaluation tools that help web developers make their content more accessible for those with disabilities.  

(For UofG folks, we recently hosted a session demonstrating how to use several of these tools in practice, and a recording is available on our blog post Accessibility Auditing Tools.) 

These tools help automate the process of accessibility testing by scanning web pages for common issues such as missing alternative text (alt-text) on images, ambiguous or missing link text, incorrect heading structures, and color contrast problems to name a few. While manual checks are still important, they can be time-consuming. Integrating these automated tools into your review process can significantly improve efficiency and help ensure more accurate accessibility compliance. 

How should digital accessibility be monitored and maintained over time? 

The best way to create and maintain accessible content over time is to keep it in mind from the very beginning. By doing so, we remove barriers and ensure our digital spaces are inclusive and usable by everyone in our campus community. Starting with accessibility also saves time and money, as it reduces the need to go back and fix inaccessible documents or webpages after they've already been published. 

At DARC, we actively support this process by regularly auditing websites across various departments. These audits help identify and address current accessibility issues that may impact users. In addition to ongoing monitoring, the university is required to conduct a full review of its digital content every two years to ensure it meets AODA compliance standards. 

By building accessibility into our workflows from the beginning, we’re fostering a more inclusive digital environment for everyone. 

What sort of impact does lack of accessibility have on society? 

When digital content and online services are not accessible, the consequences go far beyond inconvenience—they create real barriers that affect individuals, communities, and society as a whole.  

For people with disabilities, lack of accessibility can mean being excluded from essential parts of daily life, including education, employment, and communication. Whether it’s a student unable to access course materials or a staff member unable to read an important document, the result is the same: exclusion. When organizations overlook accessibility, they not only are limiting their reach, but also are telling others that they do not matter. I think it’s our responsibility to ensure that everyone in our community feels valued and included, especially since including accessibility features improves the lives of not only those with disabilities, but also everyone.  

We’ve all benefited from and have used accessibility features such as captions, transcripts, text-to-speech, and clear design. These features also help users with temporary impairments, non-native speakers, older adults, and people with limited internet access. 

How can people become better informed about digital accessibility? 

You can start by taking the initiative to learn the basics. Once you start learning about digital accessibility, it’ll be impossible to unsee a barrier once you come across it. UofG folks can self-register for DARC’s CourseLink course “Digital Accessibility: Removing Digital Barriers” to start learning. We also host many training webinars and workshops available to UofG folks. It’s honestly very easy to implement accessibility into your work, so practicing and including it will also help build your knowledge. You can also experiment and try out different accessibility tools and find out what works best for you. 

Other ways would be to familiarize yourself with the AODA guidelines and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards. They give the specifics for how we should be creating inclusive and accessible digital spaces online. Engage with the community by following accessibility experts or organizations, join webinars, attend conferences, and listen to real experiences of people with disabilities.  

If you could give those learning about digital accessibility one thing to take away from this interview, what would it be? 

A key takeaway I’d like people to remember is that accessibility benefits everyone, not only people with disabilities.  

Digital accessibility is critical for ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access and navigate online content. At the same time, the principles of accessibility often improve the user experience for everyone! Features like clear headings, easy-to-read fonts, high contrast text, and keyboard-friendly navigation are useful and create a great experience for all online users. 

By designing and building with accessibility in mind, we’re not only creating more inclusive digital spaces, but also fostering an environment where usability and innovation can thrive. Accessibility isn’t an add-on or afterthought—it should be a key part of the design process from the start. When we make digital content more accessible, we make it better for everyone. 

• Written by Aleshia Armstrong and Vanessa Bonham