New federal accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act go into effect next month on April 24^th. These new standards will allow university digital resources used in university programs, services or activities to be accessible to a much wider audience. This falls in line with the Wisconsin Idea, that knowledge produced by our faculty and students should be available to anyone in the world.

Because dissertations are published and made available to the public digitally, if you deposit your dissertation after April 24^th, you must take steps to ensure the PDF of your dissertation submitted to ProQuest meets accessibility standards. Keep in mind while the original version of your dissertation may be accessible, once it is saved as a PDF, the formatting may change and make it no longer compliant, so it is vital you make sure the PDF you submit is acceptable.

Examples of what will be required are:

titles and headings that are properly ordered.
alt text and image descriptions.

For complex images like graphics or charts, incorporate a long description into a caption or nearby text in your document.

proper color contrast and text labels so that color is not the sole method of conveying information.
appropriate table structure when presenting data.
text styling that makes your content easier to read and understand.

Visit the UW–Madison Document Accessibility webpage and review the information and resources provided. This information includes:

a fundamentals guide
a list of best practices by platform (including Word and PDF documents)
how to use automated and manual accessibility checkers

There are several links to more specific information, so please spend some time reviewing the resources available. If you use LaTeX, see the UW–Madison Libraries’ guide on Accessibility & LaTeX and the Michigan State University Libraries page on Creating Accessible LaTeX Documents.

We will send updates as further resources are identified and made available to you. Note the Graduate School will not be able to provide individual assistance or consultation on digital accessibility questions.

If you are notified that your submitted dissertation is found to have accessibility issues, please make the changes needed immediately so your degree can be awarded without delay.