Current Stanford Accessibility Mandates
The Stanford Office for Digital Accessibility and the Office of General Counsel have mandated that all website owners document their websites’ digital accessibility compliance status and plans. All H&S web editors must also take a required digital accessibility training. Below, we outline why this is happening, the specific digital accessibility requirements for all Stanford sites, and how to complete the training.
Why is this happening?
The university has a legal compliance mandate regarding Digital Accessibility under ADA and WCAG , so that users with and without disabilities can navigate and access the contents of Stanford sites. In 2023, the DOJ sent a reminder to universities regarding web accessibility compliance and expectations. We also understand that making Stanford more inclusive is essential to meeting our education standards.
What is Stanford's Online Accessibility Policy, and does it really apply to me?
All Stanford website owners and editors must conform at minimum to the Stanford University Online Accessibility Policy outlined in the Stanford Administrative Guide 6.8.1 , including conformance to WCAG 2.0, Levels A and AA.
“This policy is applicable to all Stanford University academic, administrative, and research units that develop, use, maintain, or procure electronic content used in conducting University business."
“Stanford University electronic content is to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Level A and Level AA standard. Where conformance with this standard is not technically feasible or would result in a fundamental alteration of the nature of the services provided through the electronic content, the University will engage with the individual to provide an equally effective alternative."
"The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0, Level A and Level AA (“WCAG 2.0 A/AA”) are technical standards for web content accessibility developed by the World Wide Web Consortium.”
(Stanford Admin Guide 6.8.1 - Updated May 14, 2021)
Current Mandates for Stanford Sites
Because there are so many facets to digital accessibility, the University is progressively expanding the scope until all sites meet all of the requirements.
Each of these items is required of all websites.
Minimum Web Standards (MinWeb)
Launched Spring 2026, Minimum Web Standards (MinWeb) are the requirements and recommendations for the creation, hosting, management, and decommissioning of web properties at Stanford.
Accessibility Link: Website pages must include an "Accessibility" link (typically in the footer) that leads to a mechanism for users to report digital barriers. This must be included prior to site launch. Refer to Footer style guidance in the Web App Accessibility Essentials.
SiteImprove: Public-facing sites must be registered in Siteimprove , Stanford’s centralized scanning platform, to track and remediate issues. This is required prior to launch and should be done on an ongoing basis. SiteImprove will show your website's Site Target score, which is out of 100. This should be at or above 90%.
Content: All electronic content must conform, at a minimum, to the accessibility standard set forth in Memo 6.8.1 (Accessibility of Electronic Content) . This should be completed during development, and on an ongoing basis. Refer to Administrative Guide 6.8.1 for additional information.
Additional Mandates
In addition to the MinWeb standards, Stanford also requires the following:
All videos created on or after January 1, 2023 must have proper captions. Proper captioning means that there are no spelling errors, punctuation is included, and the text aligns with the spoken words. It also includes relevant background sounds, such as suspenseful music, audience applause, birds chirping, etc. More information about captioning videos, including detailed instructions, can be found on the Captions and Audio Descriptions page at SODA .
All audio files, such as podcasts, created on or after January 1, 2023 must include a transcript. A transcript is the same word-for-word content as captions but presented in a separate file. It can be typed out on your page, for example in an Accordion that users can expand or collapse, as a link to a separate page with the transcript, or as a linked file. More information about audio transcripts can be found on the Captions and Audio Descriptions page at SODA .
All WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA technical issues must be resolved. Additionally, we recommend resolving all WAI-ARIA issues, as well as all WCAG 2.1 (and eventually 2.2) Level A, AA, and WAI-ARIA issues. The best way to view your site's Level A, AA, and WAI-ARIA issues is through SiteImprove. Read our tutorial on getting started in SiteImprove .
Documenting in a shared action plan the person responsible for accessibility for each site, and the remediation steps and timeline for each of the above. The H&S web team has taken care of the action plan for all sites on our platform.
Required Training
To ensure our web editors succeed in bringing all websites and digital content into compliance with accessibility standards, we have partnered with the Stanford Office of Digital Accessibility (SODA) to create a comprehensive training program. This program is available through Deque, an online accessibility training platform.
To ensure you receive training on all of the critical topics, and to keep the training as short and focused as possible, two custom learning paths were created within the training portal (Deque).
Because the custom learning paths are not yet in STARS, you follow these steps to receive credit and retain editing permissions on your website. A step-by-step guide on completing the training can be found in the wiki guide on Navigating the Digital Accessibility (Deque) Training .