Web Accessibility FAQ
In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a revised ruling under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring all web and digital content to be accessible by April 24, 2026. To meet this mandate, Purdue University must ensure that all institutional web templates, pages and systems comply with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. The Purdue Brand Studio (PBS) digital team, in collaboration with campus accessibility leaders, is coordinating a structured accessibility audit and remediation plan to guide campus marketing partners. This initiative aligns with Purdue’s long-standing commitment to inclusion and equitable access while mitigating compliance, legal and reputational risks.
This FAQs page addresses common questions from Purdue Brand Network campus marketers about Purdue University’s web and digital accessibility requirements. These answers reflect guidance that has been reviewed and vetted by multiple groups at Purdue University, including information provided by Purdue Brand Studio, Purdue IT, Purdue’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) coordinator and representatives from our third-party partners in web accessibility, Siteimprove and Brailleworks.
This page is meant as a reference for campus marketers and is being provided for guidance. It does not constitute legal advice. For Purdue’s ADA accessibility requirements, definitions of the mandate, the 2026 updated Department of Justice standards and its requirements, visit Purdue’s Office for Civil Rights website’s guidelines on digital accessibility.
Additional information will be added here as guidance is finalized.
Accessibility Standards and Compliance
What accessibility standard does Purdue follow?
Purdue University follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, as required under Purdue’s Policy on Electronic Information, Communication and Technology Accessibility and the 2026 updated Department of Justice standards as defined on the Office for Civil Rights website.
The existing university policy specifically cites websites doing university business. Does this new mandate apply to all websites regardless of “doing university business”?
All digital content is within scope of the mandate, not just student-facing content. This applies to the entire Purdue digital community.
Are the updates required by the April 24, 2026 deadline only on the student-facing pages? Or is it the full site?
All digital content is included in the mandate, not just content that is student-facing or doing university business. If you have additional questions on what else the mandate covers, our ADA coordinator, Christina Wright, can be a good resource.
Linking to External Content
Is there a legal risk for a website on the Purdue.edu domain linking to non-compliant content hosted on another website?
Yes. The university cannot delegate its responsibility to ensure that its services, including those offered through third parties, are accessible. Accordingly, if anyone working on a Purdue website links to a third-party website, even if the university does not own or control the content, they must ensure that the website/content is accessible.
What about linking to journals, publishers, or news sites?
In instructional contexts, instructors may link to general external websites (such as journals or news outlets). When doing so, they should provide an accessible version of required materials when barriers exist and offer a way for users to request an accessible alternative.
What about linking to a faculty member’s personal site that is not ADA compliant from their personal profile on a Purdue.edu domain?
Faculty-owned personal or research group sites must be compliant if they are linked from a Purdue website or are Purdue affiliated.
Is it permissible to link to a non-compliant document hosted on another site?
Moving documents to another site does not remove responsibility. If Purdue links to or relies on the document, it must be accessible.
Faculty Websites and Non-Purdue Domains
Do faculty personal websites need to meet accessibility requirements?
Yes. If a faculty member’s personal website is used to conduct Purdue business, provide Purdue services, or is linked from a Purdue website, it must meet accessibility requirements.
Who is going to “own” letting faculty know their sites must be compliant?
At Purdue, the Office of Ethics and Compliance leads compliance efforts, but each area is responsible for communicating with its constituents and ensuring online content meets accessibility requirements. The policy and the law apply to all websites and electronic media.
If a faculty member has a personal website where they showcase their work, research, team, etc., then it must also meet this mandate?
Yes. The university cannot delegate its responsibility to ensure that its services, including those offered through third parties (here, a faculty member’s personal website), are accessible. Accordingly, if a faculty member is linking to or directing to their personal website, then the personal site must also meet the accessibility requirements of the new rule.
PDFs and Electronic Documents
Given accessibility concerns, should PDFs be used on Purdue websites?
Whenever possible, avoid hosting PDFs. Instead, present online content as accessible web pages rather than PDFs.
Who does Purdue recommend departments work with for proper file remediation?
Brailleworks is an approved vendor for Purdue and you are welcome to work directly with them.
Does Purdue have an account with Brailleworks campus partners can use or are campus partners responsible for costs associated with document remediation?
Departments will be responsible for coordinating document remediation and cost. To begin the process of requesting a quote from Brailleworks for PDF document remediation, please send an email to Quotes@BrailleWorks.com. This will reach their entire sales staff and ensure quicker response times.
Considerations for your email request:
- Brailleworks must have an example of the final file(s) in their possession to provide an accurate quote. Their email can accept roughly 8 MB. If the file or files are larger, they can send instructions to FTP (file transfer protocol) to their cloud storage transfer.
- If you face a deadline to have your file(s) in-hand, please specify this in your email so they can check with their production staff on feasibility.
- All files should be in PDF format. The best files to work with are text accessible. This means you can highlight and copy all text into a Microsoft Word document.
- For each request, include the college or department name, address, phone number and the cost center, or if you work with purchase orders, that would be helpful to provide.
- Accounting contact email if needed.
Can PDFs remain online if they pass accessibility checkers?
If a PDF must be used, it must be fully accessible. Automated checks when using Adobe Acrobat and/or Siteimprove are necessary but might not catch all issues. Document owners are responsible for ensuring full accessibility.
Can faculty or staff remediate PDFs themselves?
PDF remediation requires specialized knowledge. Individuals may remediate PDFs themselves only if they can ensure full compliance. Using trained accessibility partners and professionals is strongly encouraged.
What is the official stance on file types that can be hosted online? Is there guidance for which types of files to use?
The ADA regulation does not specify a preference for the format of the document other than to state that any electronic files (PDFs, word processor, presentation, spreadsheets, etc.) must meet the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. In other words, it is not the file format or extension, but compliance with the standards that should control what is used here. That being said, “native format documents (e.g. a Word document) are often more accessible than a PDF (especially if the PDF isn’t properly tagged, headed, etc.).” It is also recommended that an underlying document be made accessible prior to converting it to PDF format, as that will reduce that amount of remediation required on the PDF.
Our unit has many PDF documents that are quick reference guides (QRGs). Most are housed on SharePoint sites. They are either downloaded and opened or opened directly from SharePoint. Do these also need to be converted?
Yes, these also need to be remediated for ADA accessibility.
Images and Visuals on Websites
One of our websites is very visual in the use of design sketches, computer graphic designs and other graphic representations. This includes several of our faculty/lab websites. How do you recommend we make this content accessible?
Like on all sites, visuals still need to be tagged and have alt text descriptions included for screen readers in the code to ensure those using assistive devices have access to all information hosted on the site and enjoy the same or similar experience as those without assistive technologies. Also, be mindful of color contrast and the ability to zoom in/out.
Password-Protected and Internal Content
Does non-public, password-protected, member-only web content, such as private PDFs, need to be compliant or is it exempt?
The new rule applies to all online content, including, but not limited to, websites, electronic documents, digital tools and other web content, regardless of whether it is public or non-public or password protected. There are limited exceptions to this rule. One such exception is for individualized password-protected documents. Examples include paystubs or tax-related documents.
Does WCAG 2.1 apply to intranets and content stored on intranets?
Yes, WCAG 2.1 applies to intranets, especially if they are part of an organization’s internal information technology and are subject to legal requirements like the ADA or Section 508. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were originally developed for the web, but the W3C provides separate guidance called WCAG2ICT to help apply the same principles to non-web technologies like software, documents, and intranets. There are no exceptions in the rule for internal sites/intranets.
We have a website that is internal access only. Is this also something that requires full compliance?
Yes, all digital content needs to be compliant.
Third-Party Systems and Vendors
Who is responsible for accessibility of third-party systems?
Responsibility depends on ownership. Purdue IT manages accessibility for the interfaces of shared, university-wide systems. Departments are responsible for the accessibility of systems they procure or manage.
How should departments work with vendors to ensure compliance?
Departments should share Purdue’s accessibility resources with vendors and request documentation demonstrating accessibility compliance.
Some chatbots in use are not ADA compliant. Is that being addressed centrally?
Yes, there is a plan to consolidate all chatbot “identities” and appearances under Purdue IT so it’s a consistent voice and experience no matter what. The goal is to have this ready by February or March 2026.
Any advice on how to handle the “systems” component of the requirement, covering content like public dashboards, like Tableau, and similar applications?
Systems are the owner’s responsibility. IT is managing shared university-wide systems. The ADA IT subcommittee includes broader representation from Purdue IT teams and the regional campuses.
If a digital solution in your area is not supported by Purdue IT, we encourage you to begin conversations if you have not already.
Are there any specific Qualtrics settings we need to use to ensure forms are accessible? Or are those settings already set within the Purdue form templates provided by the system?
It depends how the survey is designed. By default, some types of questions aren’t compliant, so they should be avoided. Here is a helpful resource provided by Qualtrics: https://www.qualtrics.com/support/survey-platform/survey-module/survey-tools/check-survey-accessibi…
Design, Templates and Support
Will there be communication on when and what is changed on university-supported templates and blocks?
Yes, Purdue Brand Studio will provide updates in the Boiler Web Teams channel and in Purdue Brand Network meetings.
If we need help, how can we update our Cascade templates to the newest ones or make sure we have the most recent ones?
If your area or department does not have its own web team for support, please reach out to your marketing strategist or explore Purdue Brand Studio’s network of trusted marketing and creative partners on the Strategic Sources page. Purdue’s web templates, guidelines and example content blocks are located here: https://marcom.purdue.edu/toolbox/digital-media/web-templates/
Siteimprove
What is Siteimprove?
Siteimprove is a cloud-based platform that helps organizations manage and improve their websites by checking for issues in accessibility, quality assurance, and SEO. It regularly crawls websites to find broken links, spelling errors, readability problems, accessibility violations (like WCAG compliance) and SEO issues, then provides reports and dashboards to help content creators and web teams fix these problems. Purdue Brand Studio has an enterprise account that we share with campus partners as needed.
What is the process to create an account and add a site to Siteimprove?
Please email Mike Willis at jmwillis@purdue.edu within Purdue Brand Studio to create your account and grant access to your website(s) within the interface.
Does Purdue have a minimum ADA score that we need to achieve in Siteimprove for websites? Is 80% AA rating allowed?
There is no minimum ADA score. It must fully comply (100% score) with the new rule.
Where can I get more guidance or learn how to make some of the less complex fixes?
While Purdue Brand Studio is unable to provide 1:1 support, we will do our best to answer commonly asked questions via our regular campus partner communications, updates to this FAQ document and regular training sessions. You can help us craft future content for all campus partners by emailing general questions to digital-marketing@purdue.edu. Please do not email specific team members within Purdue Brand Studio.
A lot of the fixes required in Siteimprove seem to be at the difficulty level of expert or advanced and beyond our capabilities. Is there central help we can access?
Purdue Brand Studio can offer general guidance. For specific 1:1 support, you can explore Purdue Brand Studio’s network of trusted marketing and creative partners on the Strategic Sources page.
Are we required to pass AAA levels, ARIA and Siteimprove best practices by law?
The regulations do not require compliance with Siteimprove’s accessibility best practices or the ARIA attribute requirements. Currently, we are focusing on the ADA Title II requirements, as found on the ADA.gov website for compliance with WCAG 2.1, AA by the April 2026 deadline.
Those best practices are included in the Siteimprove platform to help our accounts achieve digital accessibility and ensure all interested parties can engage with our digital content. This Siteimprove guide may help illustrate and provide clarification. Similar guides are available on demand in the Siteimprove Resource Center, located within the platform and accessed in the lower right-hand corner by clicking on the question mark symbol (?) inside a purple circle icon. Once you click the question mark, it expands and guides are accessible by clicking on “Help Center.”
In closing, we want to share that at Purdue Brand Studio we believe good design is compliant design, and we strive to serve all users. Creating user-friendly digital experiences that meet accessibility standards isn’t just a legal requirement or a checklist, but an integral part of creating truly effective, intuitive experiences for everyone, including people with disabilities. Accounting for diverse user needs from the start improves usability for all and helps to avoid costly fixes later.