Electronic resources made available online by Oregon State University must be accessible for all users. All OSU community members share the responsibility to meet these requirements in the documents and resources that they create, in support of the university's mission and in compliance with federal and state law.
This requirement applies to all content deposited to ScholarsArchive@OSU. Depositors are expected to ensure their documents are accessible prior to submitting to ScholarsArchive.
Accessibility refers to the ability of individuals with disabilities to independently acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services within the same timeframe as individuals without disabilities, with substantially equivalent ease of use. A document or application is accessible if it can be used by individuals with disabilities, such as mobility impairments, blindness, and low vision.
Depositors should refer to the university's Digital Accessibility guide when creating digital documents. For most types of documents that are submitted to ScholarsArchive, we recommend creating your document in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint -- which are supported by university guidance and offer built-in accessibility checking tools -- then exporting to PDF using the provided instructions for Word or PowerPoint. For less formal documents, it may be appropriate to submit the Word (.docx) or PowerPoint (.pptx) version directly to ScholarsArchive.
For works that must be submitted in order to meet graduation requirements (e.g., Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Honors College Theses), Word format is required for submission and the review process will include passing an accessibility check. The guides for different submission types will include any specific requirements pertaining to accessibility.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the accessibility of your document.
If you encounter an inaccessible document in ScholarsArchive, you can request an accessible version using the Accessibility Remediation Request Form (also available from item pages).
