Step 1: How to comply with the Web Accessibility Procedures
Go to the How to comply with the Web Accessibility Procedures training on the UCB training learning management system. Complete the training. Your completion will be tracked and reported on. This training is required for most UC Berkeley employees.
Step 2: Concepts for everyone to learn
Go to the Accessibility Basics section. These concepts are crucial for accessibility, and you’ll need to learn them whether you’re a content editor or a web developer. You may want to focus on one concept at a time.
Step 3: Advanced and specialized courses
- W3C / WAI: Digital Accessibility Foundations - this is a free, 4-week online course offered by the same organization that produces the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that UC Berkeley uses as our compliance goal.
- LinkedIn Learning courses are free for UCB employees - there are a variety of courses related to accessible web design and document creation.
- To learn more about creating and remediating accessible documents and forms, go to the Documents & Forms section of the website to learn more.
Step 4: Learn to use accessibility checkers
Here are some excellent tools for running automated accessibility checks. There are lots of others you may choose to adopt, but these three cover most of what you can check for with automated tests.
Remember: Automated testing tools are extremely useful, but they can’t check everything.
- Siteimprove is a robust service for websites.
- WAVE is a free browser extension. Learn how to use WAVE.
- Grackle Docs, Grackle Slides, and Grackle Sheets are Google Add-ons. Access to the paid version of these add-ons is available for all Berkeley employees.
Step 5: Use an accessible Content Management System
Choose a platform that is accessible and allows for the creation of accessible content.
- Open Berkeley is a fully-managed website solution that relies on accessible design and development practices, and offers tools for website builders that support creating accessible content.
- For any other platforms (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine, Django, Rails, Gatsby, React, custom-built, etc.), your department must have expertise to determine your chosen platform's accessibility. Please refer to the Manual accessibility testing template(link is external).
- If using managed site-building services or third-party developers, consult with the provider on how they will work with you in a timely manner to address accessibility issues specific to your site. Ask the vendor or contractor for an Accessibility Confirmance Report demonstrating the accessibility of a recent website they produced for a customer. Accessibility should always be included in the contract agreement with third-party developers and agencies.
Websites on the berkeley.edu domain MAY NOT use third-party accessibility overlays. Some examples include UserWay and accessiBe. Learn why overlays are so challenging by reading Overlaying Overconfidence - My Lived Experience with Overlays.
Websites on the berkeley.edu domain MAY NOT use the following third-party no-code hosting services:
- Softr
- Squarespace
- Webflow
- Weebly
- Wix
Step 6: Add a footer link
On your website footer, include a link to the Report a Website Accessibility Issue page.
Refer to the footer of this web page for Accessibility, Nondiscrimination and Privacy links.
Step 7: Find and bookmark resources
There are lots of fantastic, free resources to help you build accessible communications. Here are a few to get you started, but we recommend building your own set of go-to resources over time.