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Re: University Resources

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From: Julian Tenney
Date: Apr 17, 2025 10:17AM

I would say no, but it probably depends. If it's just general access to a third party resource, then the accessibility is not the University's responsibility. However that doesn't mean that the University shouldn't review the accessibility of that resource and i) highlight any issues to users, or ii) raise those issues with the third party.

It might be more complicated if access to the resource is an essential part of a users job. The problem here is define 'essential'.

The EAA is relevant here, with the onus falling on the third party. It's also more complicated because something like pubmed will contain resources in turn provided by multiple third parties, who may have varying standards / policies when it comes to accessibility.

So in my opinion it's a good question because of the 'what ifs' but in my work at University of Nottingham I do not think we are responsible for pubmed's accessibility.

Julian

From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of Brian Lovely via WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: 17 April 2025 16:53
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Cc: Brian Lovely < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] University Resources

I'm a little out of my zone here, so I hope I can word this question correctly. If a university provides access to outside resources, for example JSTOR or PubMed, is the university responsible for the accessibility of those resources?

Thank you,
Brian Lovely

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