Web Accessibility in Post-Secondary Education: Legal and Policy Considerations‪.‬

Universities, community colleges and other post-secondary institutions are increasingly using the web as a mode of communication. For example, information concerning school admission policies, campus activities, and community services as well as a wide range of staff and faculty resources are now routinely--and often times exclusively--provided via the web. In addition, distance learning course offerings have become more common and on-campus classes have increasingly included web-based modes of instruction. As an example of faculty interest and use of the web in teaching, among 1,879 University of Washington faculty who responded to a survey in 2001, 82% used the web at least weekly to support their instruction (Do you teach with technology? Faculty survey results revealing, n.d.). The findings from survey research on the use of the Internet by college students in a recently released report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project also documents the importance of the Internet to higher education students (Pew Internet and American Life Project, n.d.). The researchers concluded that, " ... it is integrated into their daily communication habits and has become a technology as ordinary as the telephone or television." Students reported that they use, " ... the Internet to communicate with professors and classmates, to do research, and to access library materials. For most college students the Internet is a functional tool, one that has greatly changed the way they interact with others and with information as they go about their studies."