Accessibility
Disability and Access Services (DAS) is here to ensure that you have access to all of MIT’s programs, activities, and services. For students, staff and visitors, that includes physical access to buildings, activities and classrooms, as well as digital access to course websites, departmental web pages, videos and other online resources. Find out more about physical and digital accessibility on these pages.
Types of Disabilities
Between 15 - 20% of the world's population has some kind of a (visible, invisible, temporary, situational, or permanent) disability. To create an inclusive web experience for all users, it is helpful to understand the ways in which different disability types need to access web content.
- Hearing (Deafness and Hard-of-Hearing). Users with hearing impairments can use the web if captions are provided for multimedia content (any video content that also has audio) and transcripts for audio-only content
- Visual (Blindness and Low Vision). Users with vision loss can rely on screen enlargement, keyboard-only navigation, and/or the use of screen reader technology. Access to information via these means is dependent on sizable fonts, good color contrast, and well-structured websites that label all elements properly
- Motor (Physical Impairments). Users with motor impairments are likely to use only a mouse, only a keyboard, voice or other inputs to control and navigate the web. Websites developed with flexibility of input options are more accessible to these individuals
- Cognitive. User with cognitive impairment rely on consistent navigation structure. Overly complex presentation, flickering, or strobing designs can be confusing to this group of users
All inquiries are welcome at accessibility [at] mit.edu.
