Accessibility
Title II Training
On April 24, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a new rule on digital accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This rule requires the University’s web content, including academic course content, to be accessible starting on April 24, 2026. All UW Bothell web editors are required to take the WordPress Accessibility Training course during their time as an editor or contributor.
Content accessibility
Content editors are responsible for their content’s compliance with federal and state accessibility laws. Below are instructions for content editors at UW Bothell on how to make your web pages accessible when using WordPress. Content editors can also download the accessibility checklist to get more details on what elements of your content need to be accessible and why.
Download the UW Accessibility ChecklistOther resources
Email uwbweb@uw.edu for additional assistance.
- UW Seattle accessibility site
- UW Bothell accessibility site
- Producing accessible multimedia
- Creating accessible PDF forms with Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Creating accessible PDF forms from Microsoft Word
- W3C Writing for Web Accessibility
- W3C Image Tutorials (alternative text)
Headings
Headings should be in semantic order: page title will always be marked as a Heading 1 but within the content areas, content editors can choose between the headings Heading 2 through Heading 5. “Use short headings to group related paragraphs and clearly describe the sections. Good headings provide an outline of the content.” Read more heading tips on the W3C website.
Stylized headings
The point of headings is provide a navigational page structure for your end-user. People don’t read pages, they scan them and good heading use increases how easily an end-user is able to scan and comprehend the information. Don’t use headings for decorative purposes or to bring visual attention to certain aspects of your page.
Tables
Tables need headers and captions: Table headers are different from content headings. Columns and rows need to be clearly identifiable as a header for a screen reader to differentiate between what is data and what is header information.
Table Captions
If there is not already a descriptive title that introduces the data table, add a caption. The caption will appear before the table. For example: “Building hours”
Video captioning
In order to be compliant with state and federal accessibility laws, all videos that are a form of official communication must be captioned for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
YouTube is a possibility if you’re looking for free options. Users can type the captions into YouTube directly while listening to the audio. If the video is hosted on a channel that you do not have the login credentials for, you will need to contact the owner of that channel and work directly with them on a solution.
Communities of practice
Join the AccessibleWeb@U mailing list to hear from a community of UW web designers, developers, and other interested individuals who discuss and share ideas on accessible web design.