Digital Accessibility Overview

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Support for Creating Accessible Content

As per the NYC DOE’s agreement with the US DOE’s Office of Civil Rights all DOE Staff (central and schools) and Vendors doing business with the DOE must provide products, information, and resources–even print ones–in a digital format that is accessible to people with disabilities and/or who speak a language other than English. In accordance with local city and state laws, we are required to follow the most current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). As of 2025, that is 2.2 AA, but we expect it to change over time.

We have developed the following resources to support everyone in understanding digital accessibility and ensuring all our products are indeed accessible to all. We recently moved this content, so it is available to all. So please share these Accessibility and Websites resources with all staff and vendors.

 Accessibility is the right thing to do, and it is legally required. There are no exceptions.

Assign an Accessibility Point of Contact

There should be a Digital Accessibility point of contact for your office, initiative, or school. In offices, they’re the content creators. In schools, this is often the Tech School Point of Contact (SPOC) or Webmaster. This person can support others in learning to create accessible content. They should:

Your office's assigned point of contact is who will help you and your team ensure the digital accessibility of all your:

School Website Guidance

In order to ensure that your school website is digitally accessible to people with disabilities and those using digital translation services, please review the following resources:

    • Quarterly Reports: NYC DOE School website accessibility reports are created quarterly by the Office of Digital Inclusion by scanning the sites with the WAVE tool from WebAIM. You can download the Chrome extension from WebAIM and run your own reports as you update your site.
    • Regularly test your own site using the WebAIM Chrome extension: Schools can go even further and learn how to do their own “Self-Audit” found on the InfoHub.
      • Knowing how to do this — and how to fix the errors that the scan reveals — are covered in the 14 on-demand digitally accessibility courses required for Webmaster Certification (InfoHub employee login required)

Office Website Guidance

If your office develops a website outside of the NYCPS family website and the NYC DOE’s InfoHub, it still must adhere to the digital accessibility requirements as referenced above. 

  • Mandatory Audits: Offices and initiatives must do semi-annual self-audits. as outlined on the InfoHub
  • Regularly test your own site using the WebAIM Chrome extension: You can download the Chrome extension from WebAIM (Open external link) and run your own reports as you update your site. Schools can go even further and learn how to do their own “Self-Audit.”

    • Knowing how to do this — and how to fix the errors that the scan reveals — are covered in the 14 on-demand digitally accessibility courses required for Webmaster Certification (InfoHub employee login required)

Before Choosing a Vendor

Be sure to discuss all aspects of a vendor’s support for accessibility with its reps/salespeople BEFORE engaging that vendor. You can familiarize yourself with steps you should take before engaging a vendor on the Website Guidelines page on the InfoHub. Request and review their completed General Services Association Section 508 approved Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or equivalent verifying product accessibility.

Accessible Documents

All staff now have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro through our enterprise license through TeachHub. This allows you to create accessible PDFs and fillable forms.

Troubleshooting & How-To Guides:

Take the free training options offered by Digital Inclusion via our on-demand classes.

Other Types of Accessibility Support

Still have questions?

Email us at DigitalAccessibility@schools.nyc.gov.