Accessibility Compliance

Initial Updates by April 24, 2026 + Ongoing

Per the Department of Justice and the Commonwealth of Virginia, all university web content must adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards to ensure digital content is accessible to people with disabilities. 

Elements of these requirements include text, images, sound, videos and documents, and apply to all services, programs and activities offered by the university. Some exceptions exist for archival content.

Compliance Timeline: While the Department of Justice has extended the digital accessibility compliance deadline to April 2027 for William & Mary, the university is still assessing how this may affect Virginia’s timeline. Regardless of extensions, the WCAG 2.1 AA standard and scope still apply to university content, and digital accessibility continues to be a shared responsibility.

News Stories: Additional guidance will be provided regarding the retention of archival news stories and borrowed news stories. Prioritize accessibility efforts on content outside of news folders until guidance has been provided on the retention of archival news stories.

All Editors

1. Review the web accessibility overview for Cascade.
2. Find accessibility guidelines and tips throughout the Cascade Help pages.
3. Talk to your POC and offer to help.
   • They can share what accessibility issues have been identified in their accessibility reports so you can help fix the issues in Cascade. Each week a fresh scan is completed and their reports will reflect if issues have been resolved.
   • All documents need to be assessed for accessibility compliance.

Points of Contact (POCs)

Webpages & Images

Review and follow the instructions for fixing issues reported on your Acquia Web Governance Accessibility Module Checklist.

1. Fix all "Issues to Fix" on your Checklist — Level A and Level AA.
   
   • If an issue has been fixed, it will not appear in the next weekly scan.
   • If you have reviewed the Accessibility Module help page and do not understand how to fix an issue, submit your questions or request a consult.
   • Optional: mark snippets as "Fixed" as you work.
   • Note: For groups within the William & Mary domain, the following check will be resolved for you by University Web & Design each week and can be disregarded:
     • Link is missing an accessible name
2. Review and try to resolve any "Warnings" on your Checklist — Level A and Level AA.
   • Warnings require that you evaluate the reported item to confirm if the issue requires action for compliance.
   • Optional: mark snippets as "Fixed" as you work.
   • If you have reviewed the Accessibility Module help page and believe no action is needed, or do not understand the warning, submit your questions or request a consult.
   • If we confirm no action is needed, we will try to suppress the warning from appearing in your future scans.
   • Note: The two following checks for images will likely be too numerous for us to suppress from your reports once you have reviewed them, but they should still be reviewed by you for compliance (details on reviewing warnings):
     • Is the image alternative text descriptive enough?
     • Are the hidden images decorative?
3. Review and understand "Issues to Review" included on the Checklist — Level A and Level AA.
   • These checks can only be manually performed — they cannot be machine tested.
   • These are issues to be knowledgeable about to avoid creating accessibility barriers with the identified content elements during your ongoing maintenance of the website — primarily headings, tables, images and multimedia.
   • To ensure you have completed a review of these issues for all existing content, once you are confident they are compliant you may mark snippets as "Reviewed" as you work. Those snippets will then no longer appear in your reports for that issue.

PDFs & Other Documents

Documents included on your websites must also be accessible. The Acquia Web Governance tool does not scan your documents for accessibility compliance — it only scans them for quality assurance items such as broken links and editorial policies.

Note: PDF is a file type intended for printed content and should not be used for housing informational content on your website. PDFs are also more difficult to make accessible than a webpage, and they are more difficult for visitors to use on mobile devices.

1. Review and evaluate all documents.
2. For those that are actively used and the content is informational in nature, include the content on a webpage and eliminate the document. This ensures accessibility and improves usability across devices.
   • Note: A link to a printable PDF version of the content may also be provided on the webpage as a supplemental version of the content, but the webpage should be considered the primary version of the content.
3. For those that are actively used but need to remain in printable PDF format or other file type (form, template, etc.), use the Digital Accessibility Resource Guide to learn how to test and ensure they are accessible.
4. For those that are archival in nature but deemed appropriate to keep on the website, evaluate if they meet the federal and state exception rules for archival content, below, and therefore do not need to be proactively remediated for accessibility.

If you are unsure about how to approach your document review, or have questions about whether a document can remain on your website, submit your questions or request a consult.

Exception for Archival Content

An exception for meeting accessibility compliance requirements exists only for content that passes all of the following "archival" tests:

1. the content was created before April 24, 2026, or reproduces paper/physical versions of the content which was created before April 24, 2026
2. the content is kept only for reference, research or record keeping
3. the content is kept in a special area of "Archived" content
4. the content has not changed since archived