Procedure for Reporting Accessibility Issues in Web Content


1. Purpose

Ensure that people using UW websites have a usable and accessible mechanism to report inaccessible web content and UW staff have a defined process for receiving, documenting, and responding to reports of inaccessible content.

2. Scope

This procedure provides people who encounter a digital accessibility barrier a mechanism to report the barrier. This procedure applies to websites hosted on university infrastructure or externally hosted on behalf of any University unit, regardless of funding source.

3. References

4. Definitions

Digital Accessibility

Digital accessibility means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services within the same time frame as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. A person with a disability must be able to obtain information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability.

Digital Content

Digital content refers to all digital information and materials made available through University of Washington websites, web applications, or mobile applications. This includes, but is not limited to, webpages, documents (such as PDFs, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files), multimedia (such as videos, audio recordings, and images), online course materials, electronic forms, mobile applications, and interactive tools or dashboards.

5. Roles and Responsibilities

Role Responsibility
Issue Reporter
  • Report digital accessibility barriers discovered on UW Websites
Information Technology, Accessible Technology Services (UWIT ATS)
  • Identifies the unit that owns the website/ content
  • Notifies the unit’s Compliance Partner, assigning the follow-through to the Compliance Partner
  • Tracks the lifecycle of reported tickets
  • Assist Content Owners in resolving their accessibility issues if needed
Digital Accessibility Liaisons
  • Assist Content Owners in resolving their accessibility issues
Digital Accessibility Compliance Partner
  • Delegates issues to appropriate content owners in their Unit
  • Connect Content Owners to appropriate guidance and assistance to resolve their accessibility issues
  • Assist Content Owners in submitted requests through the Exception Procedure
  • Log issue resolutions for tracking and documentation
Content Owner
  • Creates and maintains content
  • Collaborates with other content stakeholders in content creation, such as writers, editors, project and product managers, designers, and developers
  • Ensures content is accessible in compliance with standards
  • Estimates resources and timeline required to resolve accessibility issues
  • Resolves all their fixable accessibility issues in a timely manner
  • Seeks assistance when encountering complex issues or barriers
  • Initiates the exception process for issues that cannot be resolved
  • Submits exception requests through the Exception Procedure
Civil Rights Compliance (CRC) Deputy ADA Coordinator
  • Monitors and reports on logged accessibility issues, enterprise-wide
  • Tracks and reports on issue progress and resolutions, enterprise-wide
  • Identifies and escalates high-risk issues and barriers
  • Identifies and escalates issues that require support from other partners, such as Disability Services Office or Disability Resources for Students
  • Supports Content Owners in submitted requests through the Exception Procedure

6. Procedure Steps

A. Reporting and Routing

  1. An accessibility link for reporting access barriers is available to Issuer Reporters, as documented in the Procedure for Creating and Publishing Accessible Web Content.
  2. The Issue Reporter logs issue using UW Connect intake form.
  3. UWIT Accessible Technology Services reviews logged tickets, routes the issue to the appropriate Compliance Partner and includes the appropriate Content Owner if that owner is known. UWIT ATS retains ownership of the ticket while the unit resolves the reported issue.
  4. The Compliance Partner delegates issues to appropriate unit Content Owner for resolution.

B. Issue Resolution

  1. The Content Owner reviews the issue and estimates the resources and timeline needed for resolution.
  2. If the issues can be resolved, the Content Owner completes resolution, and proceeds to Step 3: Reporting.
  3. If the issue cannot be resolved independently, the Content Ownerseeks support from the Compliance Partner, Digital Accessibility Liaisons, or UWIT Accessible Technology Services.
  4. If the issue can be resolved with support, the Content Owner completes resolution, and continues to Step 3: Reporting.
  5. If the issue remains unresolved, the Content Owner submits an exception request through the Exception Procedure.

C. Reporting

  1. Content Owner reports issue resolution to Compliance Partner.
  2. Compliance Partner tracks issue resolution data in their unit and reports to Deputy ADA Coordinator.
  3. Deputy ADA Coordinator tracks issue resolution data on the enterprise level and reports to Leadership.

7. Exceptions

8. Revision History

Version Date Author Description
1.0 04/08/2026 Beth Somerfield Initial Release