SCU Web Team

Web Accessibility Compliance by May 2026

Dear Colleagues,

To meet new federal requirements, all SCU digital platforms must conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.1 AA standards by May 2026. This includes websites, emails, software applications, videos, audio content, and electronic documents. While this aligns us with the recent Section 504 ruling from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), it is also an opportunity to reaffirm our values.

Digital accessibility reflects the university’s commitment to caring for the whole person. We strive to create an environment where every student, employee, and visitor can fully participate in University life. Together, we can ensure our digital space is inclusive and welcoming to everyone, regardless of ability.

There will be required tasks for every T4 site manager to complete next quarter, which will be communicated starting in January.

What does this mean?

Most of the digital content you create and manage will need to meet WCAG 2.1 AA by May 2026. If you manage one of the following, this applies to you.

Websites and emails: All public-facing and internal T4 pages, including HTML emails created in T4 or other platforms.
Software and web applications: Both SCU-built tools and vendor products integrated into our website.
Video and audio content (e.g., captions, transcripts, audio descriptions where appropriate)
Electronic documents: PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, and Google Drive files shared broadly with the campus community or public.

Some narrow exceptions exist in the federal rule, such as certain archived or highly individualized content, but, as a general rule, if it’s active content that people are expected to use, assume it needs to be accessible.

What should I expect?

We know this is a big lift, and we’re not expecting anyone to figure it out alone. Over the winter quarter, we will roll out a coordinated plan so every T4 site has a path to compliance.

You will have an opportunity to clean up your sections by archiving outdated pages and relocating all HTML emails in T4 to a new email-only section that improves how we store and archive past messages. We will provide more information soon along with a tool to make the process more manageable.

In collaboration with Academic Technology and the Office of Accessible Education, we are evaluating training and compliance effort plans. There will be required tasks for every T4 site to complete next quarter. We will do our best to make this as manageable as possible, but we wanted to let you know in advance.

Want to get a head start now?

While we will be here to help you come January, here are two easy-to-use, web team-recommended tools that will help save you time. These tools can be used anytime you create web content.

T4 Accessibility checker built into T4 preview (Sa11y): Use this tool when viewing a T4 preview page to flag and fix common issues, with the exception of HTML email pages.
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool: Paste any page URL into the WAVE website or install the browser extension to review accessibility issues on published pages.

Please reach out if you have questions and stay tuned for more information soon. Your SCU web team is only a Zendesk web support request away.