Accessibility Policy
Mission
Mackenzie University’s mission is to educate the professionals of the future for the advancement of their professional and personal goals.
The mission of Mackenzie University through its schools of Business, Education, and Political Science is:
Mackenzie University will offer quality education in Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate programs with professors with academic preparation and professional experience in their area of expertise. We will focus on preparing our students with current knowledge in addition to focusing on the needs of our students.
We will train professionals with lofty standards of knowledge that contribute to the growth of society and with the basis of making the best decisions for the company they work for or for their own life projects.
Mackenzie University Policy
The University will develop, procure, maintain and use information and communication technology that ensure people with disabilities have comparable access to them.
All new or modified online content and functionality, including the education platform features, will be accessible to people with disabilities as measured by conformance to the benchmark standards set forth below, except where doing so would impose a fundamental alteration or undue burden.
In the event of a fundamental alteration or undue burden, the University will nevertheless provide equally effective alternate access. Alternate access will ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that persons with disabilities are afforded an equal opportunity to obtain the same result, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement, in the most integrated setting appropriate to the person’s needs. The University is committed to provide information where you can perceive, operate and understand.
Benchmark Standards
Mackenzie University adheres to these universally accepted benchmark standards established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in meeting accessibility commitments.
- W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA.
- W3C’s Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 for software used to create web content; Level AA.
- W3C’s User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0 for user agents supplied by the University, including media players.
To achieve compliance with these standards, the University will use the following specifications and best practices (among others):
- Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.0.
- W3C’s MathML 3.0 specification for digital mathematical and scientific notation.
- The DAISY Consortium’s Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Standard or the International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF) EPUB 3 specification for digital publications and documents.
- W3C’s Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT) for non-web software and content.
Understanding the Four Principles of Accessibility
The guidelines, put forth by W3C, are organized around the following four principles, which lay the foundation necessary for anyone to access and use web content. Anyone who wants to use the web must have content that is:
- Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive that isn’t invisible to all of their senses.
- Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable.
- Understandable: Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
- Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies, and remain accessible as technologies and user agents evolve.
Accessibility & Usability Specialists
Mackenzie University designated Accessibility & Usability Specialists within the Disability Services Department to work with Accessibility Leadership to ensure the policies are adopted and supported.
Accessibility & Usability Specialists work in conjunction with the Office of Human Resources at Mackenzie. They retain responsibility for monitoring the University’s compliance with accessibility requirements and ensuring University websites and applications are as accessible as possible to the widest range of users using the guidelines found in this policy.
The Accessibility & Usability Specialists shall be responsible for providing guidance to Mackenzie University and its departments on accessibility relative to the requirements of this policy, and training on accessibility as necessary and appropriate. They can be reached at AccessibilitySupport@mackenzieonline.university.
Regarding Assistive Technology
Mackenzie University and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) entered into a Resolution Agreement under which the University reaffirms its commitment to ensure independent and equal access to its programs, benefits and services for all students.