It can be hard to determine who is responsible for remediating an accessibility defect, but there are a few cues we can check. If you've received an accessibility report and need to make sense of it, check the number of occurrences and then which region of the page contains the reported issue.
Report-based assumptions
If the issue has… | Then… | Outcome |
Technical-sounding jargon like “ARIA Attribute” or "Element ID" | This is likely in a theme area that you cannot control; file an accessibility ticket and our team will take a look | |
Many occurrences or pages | It’s probably in a common page element, such as a widget, header, or footer that may be out of your control | |
One or very few occurrences | This is probably page-specific; since it isn’t part of the main template, there’s a fair chance it can be handled by your team | Take a deeper look at the issue, then file a ticket or update the content as appropriate |
“Accessibility Best Practices” as the Conformance type | This is a nice-to-have thing, but isn’t necessarily a violation of the WCAG standards; if the issue is important to you, this can be filed as a feature request | Submit a feature request |
“Content Writing” as the Responsibility | There’s a good chance this can be fixed by someone on your team. However, errors may exist in third-party content that cannot be edited. | If possible, update the content |
Region-based assumptions
Accessibility reports usually contain a link to the page(s) with a reported issue. If your report is from SiteImprove, it may also include a special SiteImprove link with a saved version of the page content. These are great to check, as they can highlight the region on the page preview.
Templated areas
If the issue is within a templated area, such as a list of Resource cards, this is likely an issue for the uConnect team to handle. File an accessibility ticket and we'll take a look! If the issue is on a single item within a templated area, you may be able to make your own updates (e.g. if a post is missing a title).
The screenshot below shows a templated region and technical jargon ("Element IDs") – two signs that this was a good issue to escalate.
Third-party post or page content
uConnect's accessibility policy does not cover aggregated or third-party content. If the issue exists within the main content area of third-party material, such as a syndicated blog post from a uConnect partner, you may choose to unpublish that content.
Custom post or page content
If the content is within an area that someone on your team authored, your team is responsible for making any remediation updates.
For instance, the page below is customized content created by a university; not a third-party. A university staff member was able to select the correct heading levels for the "FAQs" heading and the accordion headings, which fixed the problem.
