Website Requirements

Last updated: August 7, 2026 

If your team owns or manages a UC Berkeley website, your site must meet certain requirements. These requirements are mandated by the ADA Title II updates and ITAP. 

A UC Berkeley website is any website used for Berkeley business. 

Your website must meet WCAG 2.1 AA. 

The ADA Title II has been updated. This update requires that your website and content must meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 26, 2027.  

You must host your website on a platform that can create accessible content.

There are many options for hosting accessible content. 

Our recommended platforms

Please see the Accessibility Vendors page for our most up-to-date list of recommendations. 

Other platforms

  • Hiring Outside Developers or vendors: If you're using site-building services or third-party developers, you must: 

    • Request and review a vendor’s VPAT. This VPAT must be completed on a website that the vendor has created. The vendor is required to show that their website meets WCAG 2.1 AA. 

    • Include the UC Terms & Conditions accessibility language (Section 11.6) in any contract agreement with a third-party developer or vendor.
  • For any other platforms (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine, Django, Rails, Gatsby, React, custom-built, etc.), your department must have enough expertise to make sure that your site is accessible. You are responsible for understanding and managing your site’s underlying source code.

You must enroll your website in Siteimprove.

All UC Berkeley websites must be enrolled in Siteimprove. Siteimprove is software used to track the accessibility of your website and help you fix outstanding issues. 

Enroll your website by completing the Siteimprove Support Form

You must add the Siteimprove analytics script to your website. 

All UC Berkeley websites must add the Siteimprove analytics script to their site. This script will allow Siteimprove to provide you with Traffic Analytics data for your site. 

Learn more about how to add the analytics script to your site. 

You must include an accessibility link in your website’s footer.

Using the link text ‘Accessibility’, provide a link to the Report a Web Accessibility Issue page. 

Example of the 'Accessibility' link the berkeley.edu page footer: 

Screenshot of the berkeley.edu page footer. An arrow points to the "Accessibility" link.

You must monitor and fix accessibility issues. 

You must use both manual testing and Siteimprove to find and fix accessibility issues on your website.

UC Berkeley PROHIBITS the following third-party no-code hosting services:

  • Softr
  • Squarespace
  • Webflow
  • Weebly
  • Wix

UC Berkeley PROHIBITS accessibility overlays. 

Overlays promise site owners a quick fix for inaccessible websites, but they do not work as promised. Some examples include UserWay and accessiBe.

In April 2025, the Federal Trade Commission ordered accessiBe to pay a $1M fine for making false or misleading claims about its product being WCAG compliant.