Contact Site Map

Website Accessibility

Requirements

  • All MIT.edu websites must include the word “Accessibility” on the site so that it appears on every page, and that word should link to http://accessibility.mit.edu. See the bottom of our Math Dept. page for an idea of how this should look.
  • Publicly accessible video content on mit.edu sites must be properly captioned.
    • New Content: must be captioned upon posting.
    • Existing Content:
      • Content posted on or after January 1, 2019 must be captioned (or removed from public view). In addition, individual videos and audio files must be captioned within seven business days of a request by an individual member of the public.
      • Content posted prior to January 1, 2019: Must be captioned (or removed from public view) within seven business days of a request by an individual member of the public.
    • Recordings of Live-Streamed Events: must be captioned as soon as practicable, but no later than seven business days after posting.
  • Publicly accessible Podcasts must come with a transcript.

Captioning Details:

  • Captions must be as accurate as those that vendors such as 3Play Media provide.
  • Auto-captioning is not sufficient on its own.
  • Transcripts are not an acceptable replacement for video content.
  • Any vendor-based captioning services will still need to be reviewed for accuracy.
  • If a specific platform does not support overlaid and time-coded captions, you can provide a text transcript or a link to a transcript.

Why Caption?

Research has shown that captioning increases absorption/retention rates for everyone, not just the hearing-impaired.

As reported by Provost Martin Schmidt in February 2020, MIT settled a lawsuit brought by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and several deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals alleging that MIT was violating two federal laws by failing to accurately caption all of the audio and video content posted publicly online by anyone associated with MIT.

What Content is this Required for?

As part of the settlement, MIT has committed to provide captioning for the following content:

  • Content created or developed by faculty or staff as part of their MIT work that is posted on MIT’s public webpages (within MIT.edu domain) or public third-party platforms (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, social media, etc.)
  • Content created or developed by a Sponsored Student Group as part of the group’s organizational mission that is posted to MIT’s public webpages or on public third-party platforms.
  • Events that are live-streamed publicly by Institute Events.

This affects content created by the Math Department, as well as related work by faculty, staff, and students/student groups.

Who is Responsible?

Each site owner—along with their supervising department, lab, center, or business unit—is responsible for ensuring that covered content is captioned.

Resources:

Learn More

To learn more about how to make your site more accessible, contact: