Case Study 5.3: eCommons, Cornell University Library

Cornell University Library has opted to require the accessibility of all items submitted to eCommons, the university’s institutional repository. The repository’s accessibility policy cites the university’s accessibility policy and WCAG standards that new submissions must meet. In addition, the policy links to web accessibility help for eCommons submitters—a section that discusses basic requirements for Word documents, PDF documents, Google docs, EPUBs, audio and video recordings, and plain text files.

Cornell suggests a strategy for engaging faculty in accessibility work by requiring WCAG compliance as a condition for using the institutional repository.