Stanford
Stanford Sites User Guide

Accessibility Commitment

Stanford Web Services (SWS) is committed to providing a Stanford Sites environment that enables site owners to build and manage websites that are accessible to everyone and adhere to Stanford's Accessibility of Electronic Content policy (6.8.1). 

As part of this commitment, SWS builds the following accessibility best practices into monthly development and release cycles:

  • Internal automated and manual accessibility product-level testing
  • External consulting and testing through the Office of Digital Accessibility
  • Escalation of issues to designers and developers for remediation
  • Documentation of decisions and best practices

Stanford's accessibility policy

Access to websites and electronic content is integral to the academic, research, and engagement activities available at Stanford University. Stanford is committed to making its electronic content accessible to its students, faculty, staff, and all other individuals with disabilities participating or engaging in the programs and services of the University.

Stanford's Accessibility of Electronic Content policy (6.8.1) addresses the responsibilities and processes for Stanford’s electronic content and accessibility for individuals with disabilities. It states that electronic content is to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG), Level AA. 

Your responsibility as a site owner

SWS has designed Stanford Sites to be accessible and to support accessibility best practices. As you add content and grow your website over time, it is your responsibility to make sure your content continues to be accessible. 

Stanford University provides access to Siteimprove, a tool to find and resolve accessibility issues. To get your Stanford site scanned, submit a help request at Website Scanning & Monitoring. 

Questions about accessibility

The Office of Digital Accessibility (ODA) team is available to answer your accessibility questions:

Questions about Siteimprove:

The ODA team also offers assistance with Siteimprove:

Learn to make your content accessible

Well-structured and informative content that follows basic formatting guidelines ensures that your website is well-organized, clearly understandable to readers, and accessible to people with disabilities.

Here are some resources for helping you create accessible content:

Write for the Web

When it comes to writing for the web, creating content that is easy to scan is your priority.

Create Accessible Headings

Learn how to use headings to make content easy scanning, improve content structure, SEO, and accessibility.

Checking Page Accessibility

Stanford Sites provides the Editora11y Accessibility Checker for checking accessibility after saving the page.

Create Links

Learn about the options for adding links to any text area, including email links.

Use Video

Learn to add videos from YouTube and Vimeo and tips for making videos accessible.

Check content accessibility

Once you've added content to your site, here are resources for checking and remediating the accessibility of your content:

Accessibility Testing

As a content creator and editor, you are responsible for making sure the content you provide meets accessibility standards.

Fix issues from Siteimprove

Siteimprove scans for and reports a variety of accessibility issues on your website. Here are tips for addressing some of these issues for your site on Stanford Sites.

Related resources

The Stanford Office of Digital Accessibility provides guidance and resources for Stanford web designers, developers, and content creators who need to produce materials that are accessible to the broadest audience possible. Here are some resources from ODA: 

Here's a list of videos from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights