Digital Accessibility Compliance

New Digital Content Accessibility Standards

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued new rules for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. UC San Diego, as a public university committed to the citizens of California and beyond, will abide by the new rules set forth in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards.

Timeline

These rules require compliance of all digital content by April 24, 2026. All new and updated digital content must be compliant upon release.

Non-Compliance

ITS will use scanning tools to monitor compliance, and will notify site owners of non-compliance as part of a formal remediation process.

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Guidance for Websites

Site owners are responsible for making sure websites meet accessibility and usability standards.

Getting Started

1. Set up the website to be scanned by Siteimprove. There's a UC-wide license and no cost for UCSD sites.
2. In the scan results, go to the Accessibility Overview and see if the site meets the benchmark score.
3. Fix all Level A and Level AA problems. This must be done even if the site meets the benchmark.
4. Fix problems in other conformance categories if you can. At minimum, fix problems until you meet the benchmark.

Getting Help

SDSC's Web & Database Services team offers expert consulting on a fee-for-service basis to assist you with meeting compliance requirements. This service is offered to both hosted customers and other UCSD sites.

UCOP offers digital accessibility office hours to UC employees.

Common Issues

The following describes some common problems and issues to look for. It is not a comprehensive list.

Many issues require a nuanced approach and specialized knowledge to correctly implement. Siteimprove's scan results include a difficulty scale on each issue to help you determine when to seek additional training or consulting help. 

Images 

• Add an alt tag to all of your images, which describes the image for visually impaired users. Some content management systems will put an identifier or file name into the alt tag. You must change this to descriptive text.
• Use appropriately sized images. Web browsers will download the entire full-size image and then size it to fit the display. When the image is significantly larger than the display size, the page loads slower than necessary.
• Text content should not be in an image. For example, a graphic banner image promoting an event, which was created for printed material, is not appropriate on a website. Instead, you can write the text content in html and set a background image. Be mindful of color contrast, and test for multiple screen sizes as the text may overlay different parts of the image depending on the screen size and resolution.

See the images and graphics checklist for more best practices.

Links

• Make links visually distinct from surrounding text. Color alone is not enough, and must be paired with a visual difference such as underline, bold, or change in font.
• Use descriptive link text.
  • Avoid urls as link text. Screen readers read out the entire url character by character, which is time-consuming and frustrating for users.
  • Avoid generic text like "Click Here" and "Learn More".
  • How to write descriptive links.
• Users can navigate to links using only a keyboard.

Audio and Video

• Use a player that is fully keyboard accessible.
• Neither audio nor video plays automatically without user input.
• Provide captions and a transcript.

See the audio and video checklist for specific requirements on pre-recorded and streaming content. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides in-depth information on how to create new AV content that is accessible.

Heading Tags

Accessible headings reflect page structure and act like an outline of your content. Heading levels must be properly nested, without skipping levels. For example, if you have an H2, then the next header nested under it must be H3, and you can't skip to H4 just to get a particular font or font size.

Beware of heading tags in the page footer. These are usually not part of the page structure, rather they are implemented to achieve a certain look (font, font size, color, etc.) In such cases, CSS styles should be used to replace the heading tags.

HTML Structure

• Ensure source code order matches visual page flow to make the website keyboard accessible.
• Use semantic HTML elements, such as <nav> for navigation menus, to help screen readers interpret content correctly.
• Use ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) where necessary, such as aria-labeled-by for form input.
• Use a skip link to provide quick access to the main content of each page. This allows a person to bypass globally repeated content such as navigation menus and banners.

See the websites checklist for more requirements.

Color

• Don't use color as the only way to indicate meaning or convey information.
• Use a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between text color and background color. Large font (18 pt or larger) has a minimum ratio of 3:1.
• Test colors with a contrast checker.
• Use of UC San Diego brand color combinations will ensure compliance and is preferred for all sites. Division and departmental sites are required to conform to the UCSD brand.

Resources

• UC San Diego Accessibility Standards: including an Accessibility Advisor chatbot to answer questions
• Training: UC Learning courses and role-based training by Siteimprove
• UC Electronic Accessibility Initiative: including best practices, coding tips, and testing tools