Accessibility Resources

Where Do I Start?

Talking about Digital Accessibility can feel daunting and overwhelming. The tools and resources below are meant to educate you and give you an idea of where to start and what to start with.

Learn about the DOJ's rule.

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 April 24, 2026.

You can learn more about the DOJ rule by visiting the UW ADA site, About the Rule.

Learn what UW is doing now.

UW is working to comply with the DOJ's regulations by April 2026. The ADA Digital Accessibility Initiative provides the latest news and updates about our progress.

Build a Strong understanding of digital accessibility.

UW offers many resources to help you learn and understand digital accessibility. Below are just a few of those resources.

  • Accessibility Basics - Guidance and checklists with steps and strategies to make your websites and documents accessible.
  • Accessibility Webinars - Recorded webinars from the UW Accessible Services team.
  • Deque University - A library of online digital accessibility courses and on-demand reference materials for every level in digital accessibility.

Learn about creating accessible content.

Creating accessible content is not as difficult as you might believe. Use the resources below to learn more.

Review and inventory your content

See the FPB Website Project page for more information.

Website Tools

WAVE—Developed by WebAIM, this online tool evaluates the accessibility of a web page's accessibility and shows results using icons and indicators embedded on the original page. It is available as a standalone website, or as the WAVE browser extension for both Chrome and Firefox.

DubBot—DubBot is an automated website accessibility checker that is available for UW websites. It performs over 100 automated accessibility checks on web pages and provides feedback to website owners. DubBot also checks for broken links, spelling errors, compliance with web governance policies, and best practices for search engine optimization (SEO).

Coming Soon. Editoria11y - a user-friendly accessibility “spellcheck” that addresses three critical needs for content authors:

  • The results will be shown inline, automatically. You don't need to click anything; tips and alerts will appear when relevant.
  • Exclusively checks for issues a content editor can fix. This allows you to focus on what you must do and not worry about what you can't fix.
  • Checks fully rendered content. Our content pages are assembled dynamically from blocks, widgets, elements, and other components, allowing you to check the content as it is assembled.