Chancellor Carol Christ; Ella Callow, director, Workplace of Incapacity Entry & Compliance; and Jenn Stringer, affiliate vice chancellor for IT and chief data officer, despatched the next message to the campus neighborhood on Monday:
We’re happy to announce that UC Berkeley has reached a decision of the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division’s investigation relating to the accessibility of our on-line content material. This settlement with the DOJ reaffirms Berkeley’s dedication to making sure accessibility for everybody. The settlement, which was formally authorised on December 2, 2022 and is efficient instantly, applies to UC Berkeley-controlled on-line content material that fall into these three classes:
- Publicly accessible web sites on berkeley.edu, together with subdomains operated by a UC Berkeley entity (instance of a subdomain: freespeech.berkeley.edu).
- BerkeleyX on-line programs.
- Audio and video content material posted by a UC Berkeley entity, hosted on berkeley.edu and on Berkeley’s accounts on third-party platforms akin to YouTube. This contains podcast channels or accounts on platforms akin to Spotify or Apple Podcasts. This class excludes an outlined subset of older “legacy” content material, which can be made accessible on request.
These enhancements might be made in phases over the time period of the settlement, which is three years and 6 months. Throughout the subsequent 4 months, we are going to introduce procedures and steering to hold out the phrases of the settlement. Over the following 9 months, we are going to work to make sure that BerkeleyX and lined audio/video content material posted on or after December 2, 2022 meet the accessibility requirements set forth within the settlement. Lined berkeley.edu web sites might be introduced updated with the accessibility requirements inside 18 months.
We’re additionally working to make sure that the preexisting audio and video content material lined by the settlement — content material that’s of most curiosity to most people — is made accessible over the following 36 months. Given the massive quantity of audio and video content material generated by UC Berkeley entities over time, our aim of creating this content material accessible will take the longest period of time.
Be taught extra concerning the settlement in our FAQs and study extra about our total Digital Accessibility Program.
The DOJ settlement concludes an investigation that started in 2014 when large open on-line programs (MOOCs) have been coming on-line and gaining in reputation at universities throughout the nation. Throughout that point, because the DOJ’s investigation was ongoing, there have been developments in digital accessibility finest practices and developments in accessible know-how that helped the campus focus its digital accessibility efforts and make investments closely in making entry to its on-line content material extra equitable.
The DOJ and UC Berkeley have reached a decision that can advance digital accessibility at UC Berkeley with out protracted litigation. We’re happy to have reached a decision of this matter, as we work towards the widespread aim of making certain that digital content material is accessible to everybody.
We acknowledge that incapacity rights are a human rights/civil rights difficulty. This crucial work is a part of our broader effort towards enhancing variety, fairness, inclusion and belonging on our campus and past.
