Preparing Sites for the Title II Rule on Web Accessibility
The new Title II Rule on digital accessibility means transforming how we create, share, and interact with digital content. To prepare for this change, we are undergoing a university-wide effort to foster an inclusive digital environment where everyone can access and benefit from our digital presence from the start.
Here are some steps that faculty and staff can take now to prepare:
Build A Strong Understanding of Digital Accessibility
Western offers numerous resources to help build your awareness and understanding of accessibility. To learn more about the accessibility of technologies, refer to the following guides that are most relevant to the content that you create:
Take accessibility training:
- Standard accessibility training: required for all Western website editors
- Accessibility essentials micro-course: a primer or refresher course for all digital content creators
- Advanced accessibility training: recommended training for departments building their own sites or web platforms/apps.
Review and Inventory Current Content
Before making your digital content accessible, it is important to inventory the content that you or your unit is responsible for. This may include but isn't limited to: webpages, course content, various document types, videos, social media plugins, or site widgets.
For webpages, Silktide can provide an inventory of your site and highlight accessibility issues that need fixes. If you are a site owner and would like access to Silktide, you can request access and learn more on our Silktide info page. For other content types, you may want to create an inventory spreadsheet that documents your content and how it's used.
As you review your content, consider the following questions:
- Is it accurate?
- Is it up to date?
- Is it relevant?
- Is it redundant?
- Is it accessible?
Clean Up Old Files
Once the inventory is complete, review which content is essential to share. A webpage or course content without extra pages and files is easier to make accessible and is easier for users to navigate effectively. Remove any content that is not accurate, up-to-date, and relevant.
Delete Duplicate Content
Duplicated content can clutter your digital space and make it harder to manage accessibility. Identify and delete any duplicate files or information. If necessary to share, link to webpages where content originated, as this will streamline your content and make it easier to ensure accessibility is being met.
Move Archived Content
Your site may have content that qualifies as archival content. If it meets the criteria of archived content, this content can move to a designated archive section and not need to meet the new accessibility rule right away.
Archived content must meet four criteria to qualify:
- The content was created before the date the state or local government must comply with this rule, or reproduces paper documents or the contents of other physical media (audiotapes, film negatives, and CD-ROMs for example) that were created before the government must comply with this rule, and
- The content is kept only for reference, research, or recordkeeping, and
- The content is kept in a special area for archived content, and
- The content has not been changed since it was archived.
Examples of Archived Content
- A news story was written in 2016, and kept in an archives section of news stories based on year. The story is no longer circulated and kept for reference. The story hasn’t been edited since first published.
- A series of board meeting minutes from 1990 to 2024 are available for recordkeeping and reference, and hosted under a meeting minutes archive. The minutes have not been edited since originally being created and posted to the site.
Content not considered “archival content”
- A news story written and archived in 2024 gets an update in 2026, and starts being circulated again. Even though originally archived, this content is actively used and no longer kept for reference or recordkeeping. This means the content must now be made to be accessible at the WCAG 2.1 AA level.
- Board meeting minutes continue to be published after 2026. Any new minutes created after 2026 must be created and posted accessibly, also meeting WCAG 2.1 AA.
- An application form for a program was created in 2015, but has been continuously updated over the years and is currently posted online for applicants to use. Even though the content was created prior to 2026, the document is actively updated and changed, so it can’t qualify as archived content. This means the form must be made accessible at the WCAG 2.1 AA level.
Document Accessibility Tools and Resources
Digital documents like Word or PDF can take time, money, or sometimes both to ensure they are built or remediated to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. Once your content inventory is cleaned up and unneeded documents removed, the remaining documents to keep will be the documents you should make sure are accessible.
While there are tools and resources available at Western, document and content creators are responsible for making their own content accessible, per Western's accessibility policy.
Making Accessible Documents
Remediating Documents
Tools
If you would rather fix documents in-house, there are some tools available:
- Equidox: please email webhelp@wwu.edu to request an account.
- Adobe Acrobat Pro: visit the Software Central site to learn how to acquire, if needed.
- Note: Acrobat Pro is required for remediating PDFs. Adobe Reader does not have the tooling built in to make documents accessible.
Vendors
If a document is long, has complex content, or you would rather outsource the work, you may get a quote from the following vendors: