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Dr. Heidi L. van de Wouw

Academic Professional 

School of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Georgia Institute of Technology

E-mail:  Heidi.vandeWouw**At_Symbol_Here**chemistry.gatech.edu

Phone:   (404) 385-0631

Office:   Boggs 2-90C

Advising:   Navigate360

Hello, 

I’m looking into how other higher ed institutions are handling SDS PDFs for internal electronic storage and distribution and on their public websites for those who have them posted online through their chemistry departments or through their EHS websites, especially in light of the Title II federal guidelines around accessibility (ADA web / document accessibility). I’m wondering whether any colleges or state institutions you know of have formal guidelines, policies, or best practices they follow (or have developed) for meeting Title II requirements and continuing to allow SDS to be distributed electronically and/or be accessible online. (We keep paper as well, but want to ensure our SDS continue to be broadly accessible to the broadest audience within the context of the Title II updates.)

A few specific questions I’d love to crowdsource perspectives on:

• Are you aware of any colleges or universities that allow SDS/PDF documents on their websites and currently meet Title II accessibility standards (e.g. tagged PDF, reading order, alt text)?
• Are there any remediation strategies used by other colleges to convert legacy SDS PDFs into accessible format, or are institutions taking them offline, or direct linking rather than hosting pdfs? 
• What reservations do folks have about that type of pdf remediation
• Are there reservations about direct linking to company websites (broken links, slow updates, etc)
• Are there any institutions that would be willing to share their internal “SDS accessibility” guidelines or checklists (so we could see how they handle legacy versus newly published SDSs)?
• And related, are any institutions have formal policy they're willing to share about SDSs PDFs for electronic distribution in the context of Title II as part of their accessibility strategy?

If folks are aware of any published policies or institutions who’ve done this work, that would be very helpful. I am assembling a comparative survey of how peers are handling SDS accessibility, and would be grateful for your assistance.

Thanks for any insight,

-Dan Jacques

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Daniel R. N. Jacques, MS

Chemistry Laboratory Safety Manager; Chemistry Instructor

Instructional Support Specialist, SL4

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Chemistry and Biochemistry - Smith 230

SUNY Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, NY 14420

Office: (585) 395-2480

American Chemical Society Committee on Chemical Safety Member 

Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service, 2017

--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org