Opening Digital Humanities to All: Approaches to Supporting Accessible Omeka Projects

Abstract

In 2024, the Department of Justice issued revised Title II regulations under the American Disabilities Act, requiring that all government institutions make their digital content accessible and in compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines. In response, the Digital Humanities Working Group at a public institution is navigating the procedural changes needed to ensure our future digital humanities projects are fully accessible, while also exploring technical and ethical ways to make our past projects accessible. Using tools like WAVE, we have evaluated common accessibility barriers to our past digital humanities projects based in Omeka. The working group is developing solutions to our future digital humanities tool trainings, workflows, and user agreements. In this paper, we will share our process, the challenges encountered, and recommendations or supporting students and faculty in creating digital humanities projects that are accessible to all users. This paper will address both common accessibility issues we have identified in digital humanities projects and ways to make our commitment to accessibility sustainable.