Digital Ecosystem Accessibility

The practice of ensuring accessibility across the entire interconnected set of digital systems, platforms, and tools that a person must interact with to complete their goals, rather than treating each system in isolation. In higher education, the digital ecosystem includes enrollment systems, learning management systems, library services, student portals, job boards, web conferencing platforms, and collaborative applications. In employment, it spans recruitment platforms, onboarding systems, productivity tools, and communication platforms. Accessibility of individual components is insufficient if the ecosystem as a whole contains inaccessible links — users must be able to move between systems without encountering barriers. Evaluating digital ecosystem accessibility requires mapping user journeys across multiple platforms and identifying where accessibility breaks down at transition points.