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Accessibility guidelines by role

Digital accessibility is our shared responsibility. Learn how you can advance accessibility in your role and help others, too. The information on this page is primarily focused on external-facing digital content.

For communicators For faculty For administrators and other staff For students

Digital accessibility training for all UW users

Deque University is a library of online digital accessibility courses and on-demand reference materials for every level and every job role. By the end of your training, you’ll feel more confident in your ability to support digital accessibility in your day-to-day.

Find courses by job role

For communicators

We must ensure that our communications comply with requirements effective April 20, 2026. However, it’s a good idea to start practicing now. This is particularly important for “evergreen” digital content, which must remain accessible regardless of its original publication date, especially if we expect it to be accessed in the future.

  • Engineering-affiliated websites managed through Drupal
    • Content owners and communication managers are responsible for ensuring that all content they produce adheres to accessibility best practices. 
    • The College of Engineering web team routinely monitors and fixes high-level issues that impact our suite of websites. 
    • If you see any issues that you cannot resolve with a content fix, please contact us.
  • Other UW-sponsored websites
    • Website designers, developers, content authors, and others responsible for UW websites must ensure their websites are accessible to all users.
    • Guidance and tools
  • External, affiliated websites
    • From time to time, you may be asked to create a website that cannot be supported through a UW-sponsored web service such as Drupal. Our first recommendation is to check out the uw.sites network, which provides accessible templates that are free for use, hosted by the UW. These templates are centrally managed and can be relied upon to be tested and maintained. 
    • If UW sites cannot meet your or your organization’s needs, we strongly recommend vetting the service you plan to use to ensure the websites meet accessibility standards and security requirements. You will also want to test your website to ensure it meets requirements using any of these tools. 
    • Once your website is published, we recommend signing up for DubBot, an automated website accessibility checker available for UW-sponsored websites.
  • Third-party websites
    • While we are not responsible for content generated by non-UW entities, we encourage you to be mindful when linking to external websites. We do not want to share resources shared on websites that do not meet our requirements.

All email content created after April 24, 2026 must be accessible. Whether you are sending emails via a platform such as Marketo or using Outlook, you must follow email accessibility best practices.

  • Video captions, audio descriptions, and audio-only transcriptions are typically required for all content created after April 24, 2026 or if your content is actively being usd.
  • More guidance on exceptions

  • Infographics: Complex images, such as graphs and charts, should be accompanied by a screen-reader-friendly caption or description.
  • Avoid images of text: use text, not images, to create text content. A screen reader cannot read text within a graphic.
  • Note that embedding graphics from Canva in your web content can create accessibility barriers for screen readers and make navigation difficult for all users. Consider including all content on your page rather than embedding external media.

  • Do I need to remediate old documents?
    • If your document was created before April 24, 2026 and it is not currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in UW services, programs, or activities, you may not have to remediate it, but you will have to mark it as archived.
  • If your document is in use or is created after April 24, 2026, follow this guidance:

  • Among the platforms tested by UW-IT, Microsoft Forms was found to be the most user-friendly and accessible.
  • Drupal forms, while accessible, should be built only for very specific cases and with guidance from a web specialist.

Deque University is a library of online digital accessibility courses and on-demand reference materials for every level and area of expertise.

The library is available to anyone with a UW NetID at the Deque University website.

Recommended courses:

  • Fast Track to Accessibility for Any Role
  • Deque for Designers
  • Faculty & Staff who create PDFs

For faculty

While digital course content may be the biggest concern for faculty, we also urge you to consider the accessibility of related content, such as lab or class websites, documents, and newsletters.

  • All academic courses include digital content, whether taught in person, online, or a mix of both. This means that, as content creators, faculty must do their best to ensure the course content they build is accessible to all students.
  • Deep-dive into accessibility and tools

  • Our first recommendation is to check out the uw.sites network, which offers free, accessible templates. These templates are managed by the university, ensuring they are regularly tested and maintained. 
  • If uw.sites does not meet your organization's needs, we strongly encourage you to carefully evaluate any other services you consider to ensure they comply with accessibility standards and security requirements. Additionally, it is essential to test your website using various tools to confirm compliance.
  • Once your website is published, we recommend signing up for DubBot, an automated website accessibility checker available for UW-sponsored websites.
  • If your website requires significant remediation, you might consider rebuilding it on a content management system like uw.sites. Content migrations—transferring your website from a non-compliant system to a compliant one—can be complex and often require collaboration with external vendors, as the resources needed for this level of work are extremely limited.

  • It is good practice to share only documents created using best practices or that have been checked for accessibility.
  • Scans: Sometimes it is necessary to scan a document for an instructional need. When documents are in electronic form, they are easier to distribute and can be more accessible to students with disabilities than print documents. However, to ensure the scanned document is fully accessible, specific steps must be followed to ensure it is of high quality. Even if a document is not needed for a person with a disability, a poor scan often negatively impacts the end user’s experience.
  • UW-IT is currently exploring automated solutions for remediating PDFs and other digital documents. We will post updates on this page as they are available.

All email content created after April 24, 2026 must be accessible. Whether you are sending emails through a platform such as Marketo or using Outlook, you must follow accessibility best practices for email.

Deque University is a library of online digital accessibility courses and on-demand reference materials for every level and every area of expertise in digital accessibility.

The library is available to anyone with a UW NetID at the Deque University website.

Recommended courses:

  • Fast Track to Accessibility for Any Role
  • STEM faculty who use Microsoft Word

For administrators and other staff

Almost every staff member creates digital content that must comply with the new ADA policy. Take a moment to consider the documents you typically engage with or share to develop a plan to meet compliance. This may involve remediating certain documents, archiving others and implementing best practices in your daily work.

  • “Conventional electronic documents” include Portable Document Format (PDF), word processor file formats, presentation file formats, and spreadsheet file formats.
  • Some new documents created for a specific person are not required to be accessible. Unless those documents are individualized and secured, they must be made accessible.

  • Do I need to remediate old documents?
    • If your document was created before April 24, 2026 and is not currently used to apply for, gain access to, or participate in the UW services programs or activities, you may not have to remediate it.
    • If the document is in active use or is created after April 24, 2026, you will want to assess whether it’s best to archive, remediate, or recreate.
      • Archive: If content is no longer actively maintained but is needed for reference, content should be clearly marked as “Archived.” Ideally, this content should also be removed from any external servers (ie websites, OneDrive or Google Drive)
      • Remediate:
        • UW-IT remediation service: will remediate a limited number of digital documents (e.g., PDF, PowerPoint, Word) without charge through a service supported by UW-IT. Individuals, departments, and other units at the UW are encouraged to apply to remediate highly-visible, high-impact, multiple use, and/or strategic documents.
        • UW Document Conversion service: The UW offers an online Document Conversion Service to help students, faculty, and staff at the University of Washington to produce alternative versions of documents at no cost, quickly and easily.
        • Outsourcing PDF remediation: Crawford Technologies provides document remediation services at prices and turnaround times that seem to be a good match for higher education institutions. Contact the vendor for a quote: das-quotes@crawfordtech.com 
      • Recreate:
        • Sometimes it makes sense to create a document from scratch, especially if it's highly visible, high-impact, and intended for multiple uses. Options:
          • Turn content into a webpage
          • Use Microsoft Word (Recommended)
            • Starting with an accessible Word document, a goal when exporting to PDF is to do so in a way that preserves the document structure of the Word document, including heading levels, alternate text for images, and markup that explicitly identifies lists, tables, document language, and other content that is important for accessibility.

Deque University is a library of online digital accessibility courses and on-demand reference materials for every level and area of expertise.

The library is available to anyone with a UW NetID at the Deque University website.

Recommended courses:

  • Anyone who is new to digital accessibility
  • Faculty & staff who use Microsoft Office
  • Faculty & staff who create PDFs

  • Digital Accessibility Liaisons: join this community of practice made up of staff and faculty to build digital accessibility awareness, learn new skills and gain support from peers.
  • UW-IT help: help@uw.edu

For students

From time to time, students create digital content to promote UW-sponsored activities, such as a student club or organization. All of this digital content must comply with the new ADA policy.

  • Infographics: Complex images, such as graphs and charts, are accompanied by a detailed description and a summary using the "alt" attribute.  
  • Avoid text in images: whenever possible, use text, not images, to create digital content.

  • Our first recommendation is to check out the uw.sites network, which offers free, accessible templates. These templates are managed by the university, ensuring they are regularly tested and maintained. 
  • If uw.sites does not meet your organization's needs, we strongly encourage you to evaluate carefully any other services you consider, ensuring they comply with accessibility standards and security requirements. Additionally, it is essential to test your website using various tools to confirm compliance.
  • Once your website is published, we recommend signing up for DubBot, an automated website accessibility checker available for UW websites.
  • If your website requires significant remediation, you might consider rebuilding it on a content management system like uw.sites. Content migrations—transferring your website from a non-compliant system to a compliant one—can be complex and often require collaboration with external vendors, as the resources needed for this level of work are extremely limited.