Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ADA Title II web rule sets Texas Tech's federal compliance date at April 26, 2027. This reflects the interim final rule DOJ published on April 20, 2026, which moved the original April 24, 2026 date back one year for public entities serving populations of 50,000 or more. Texas Tech falls in that category as a state institution.

The federal extension did not change Texas state law. Texas requirements have been in force since 2020 and are described in the next question.

Separately, our internal program milestone is a Silktide accessibility score of 90% or higher across TTU web content by the federal date. That score is a progress measure, not a legal standard. See "What accessibility score threshold should we aim for?" below for what the difference means in practice.

If you encounter documents stating a different federal deadline, please forward them to digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu so we can ensure consistency.

Yes, and they are already in effect. The 2027 federal date is not the earliest obligation Texas Tech has.

• 1 TAC 206.70 has required new and changed state agency and institution of higher education web pages to meet the standards referenced in Section 508 Appendix C, Chapter 7, 702.10 since April 18, 2020. That is WCAG 2.0 Level AA, excluding Guideline 1.2 on time-based media.
• 1 TAC 213 governs the procurement, development, and use of electronic and information resources, including the accessibility documentation we require from vendors.

The state requirement applies to resources used by state employees as well as by members of the public. The April 2026 federal extension did not extend it.

Practical takeaway: building to WCAG 2.1 Level AA satisfies both the state standard and the federal standard, so that is the single target we ask editors to work toward.

Yes. The Title II rule contains five narrow exceptions. Content that falls within one of them does not have to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, though it must still be made accessible on request under the ADA's effective communication obligations.

1. Archived web content. Content created before the compliance date, kept only for reference or recordkeeping, stored in a clearly identified archive area, and not changed since it was archived.
2. Preexisting conventional electronic documents. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files posted before the compliance date, unless they are currently used to apply for, access, or participate in a university program or service.
3. Content posted by third parties. Content posted by someone who is not the university and is not under contract with the university.
4. Individualized password-protected documents. Conventional electronic documents specific to a single person, property, or account, such as one student's bill or one employee's benefits statement. This does not exempt authenticated web pages or applications generally.
5. Preexisting social media posts. Posts published before the compliance date.

These exceptions are narrower than they first appear, and the fourth one in particular is often misread. If you believe content you manage qualifies, contact digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu before relying on it.

Aim for a Silktide accessibility score of 90% or higher on every site you manage.

Please understand what that number does and does not mean. The legal standard is conformance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Neither the DOJ rule nor Texas law recognizes a percentage, so there is no such thing as being "90% compliant." Silktide's own documentation states that automated testing covers roughly 30% to 40% of WCAG and that even a 100% score does not mean a site is fully accessible.

Treat the score as a progress indicator that tells you when the machine-detectable problems are cleared. Reaching 90% is the point at which manual review becomes worthwhile, not the point at which a site is finished. Keyboard navigation, focus order, meaningful alt text, correct heading structure, and link text that makes sense out of context all require a human to check.

Please prioritize public-facing websites first. The second priority is student-facing websites. All sites, including internal ones, must be updated to be fully accessible.

This ordering is about the sequence in which we work, not about whether the requirement applies. Every site is in scope.

Currently, automated scanning is limited because authenticated pages sit behind multi-factor authentication. You can test these pages manually using the Silktide Toolbar after logging in. We are working with Silktide to enable auditing for authenticated pages in the future.

A scanning limitation is not an exemption. Authenticated web pages and applications are fully in scope for WCAG 2.1 AA. The rule's password-protected exception applies only to individualized documents belonging to one person, property, or account. Portals, dashboards, forms, and course tools that serve many users behind eRaider must meet the standard, and because our automated tooling cannot reach them, manual testing of those pages matters more, not less.

The automated website checker is generally limited to websites ending in "ttu.edu." However, you can manually test any website using the "Inspect" tool within the Silktide platform, or utilize the Silktide Toolbar to inspect any webpage you are currently viewing.

You can manually test password-protected or dynamic content by utilizing the Silktide Toolbar to inspect the content you are currently viewing after logging in with your credentials. Reach out to digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu if you run into specific issues.

Yes. If you are utilizing the Silktide Toolbar, you can test pages published to the development server (available on the TTU network). Please contact us if you encounter issues.

Reading level flags fall under Silktide's "Content" category rather than strict accessibility compliance. Reading Level is WCAG success criterion 3.1.5, which sits at Level AAA, above the Level AA standard the DOJ rule and Texas law require. It is a quality signal worth acting on where the audience is general, but it is not a compliance requirement and it is not a priority ahead of the April 26, 2027 federal deadline.

Specialized content such as academic journal abstracts, research descriptions, and graduate curriculum language will flag on reading level by its nature. That is expected and does not need to be remediated.

Yes, Silktide supports spell-checking in a wide range of languages. Please email digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu so we can adjust the settings for your specific site.

Please email our team at digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu, and we will add the necessary webpages to your user role.

No, TTU does not subscribe to Silktide Analytics. University Marketing & Communications utilizes Google Analytics, which is the best source for this information.

Ignoring an item is reversible. In the Silktide interface, select Accessibility in the left menu, then Checks, to review the issues found in the audit and restore anything that was ignored by mistake.

If you cannot locate a previously ignored item, email digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu and we will walk through it with you.

Yes. All university digital content must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, including internal dashboards, reports, and staff-only tools.

Texas 1 TAC 206.70 applies to electronic information resources used by state employees as well as by members of the public, so employee-facing tools are covered by state law regardless of where they sit in our remediation queue. ADA and Section 504 obligations to employees apply independently as well.

Because remediation capacity is finite, we sequence the work by exposure: public-facing sites first, then student-facing, then internal. Sequencing is about the order in which we get to things, not about whether the requirement applies. Please also avoid assuming that no one on a small team uses assistive technology. Employees are not required to disclose a disability, staff turn over, and needs change.

Yes. All websites representing the university need to be accessible, regardless of where they are hosted.

Texas 1 TAC 213 also governs the procurement and use of electronic and information resources, which means accessibility documentation is required from the vendor or platform before the university adopts a product. If you are considering a new external platform, or already run a site on one, contact digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu so we can review the vendor's accessibility conformance report with you.

You are not responsible for the accessibility conformance of a document the university did not post and is not under contract for. Linking to an external PDF does not make its accessibility your obligation. See "Are there any exceptions to the DOJ rule?" above.

You are responsible for three things:

• The link works and is not broken or obsolete.
• The link text describes the destination and indicates that it opens a PDF on an external site.
• An inaccessible third-party document is not the only way to access a Texas Tech program, service, or activity.

That last point is the one that matters most. If an external PDF is the sole path to something the university offers, provide an accessible equivalent that you control, such as an HTML page carrying the same information. Removing the link is one option, but it is not required simply because the external document has accessibility errors.

Transcripts are not always optional. Which requirements apply depends on the type of media, so use this table rather than a single rule of thumb.

In short: captions for everything with audio, a transcript for anything audio-only or video-only, and audio description for prerecorded video where visual information is not conveyed by the narration.

TTU offers captioning assistance for faculty and course content. Request captioning assistance here.

Texas Tech house style is to keep links in the same tab. Opening a new tab takes away the user's choice in how they navigate and can disorient screen reader users, who may not notice the context change.

To be precise about the standard: this is a usability preference, not a WCAG 2.1 AA requirement. The relevant criterion, 3.2.5 Change on Request, sits at Level AAA. Opening a new tab is permitted at Level AA when the behavior is communicated in advance.

So if a new tab is genuinely warranted, for example when a user would lose unsaved work by navigating away, warn the user in the link text or with a visible indicator that is also available to screen reader users.

Our recommendation for PDF content, including degree checklists and tables, is to convert it into a webpage with live HTML content whenever possible. This ensures broader accessibility and easier maintenance.

No. Scanned images of handwritten text, especially mathematics, are not accessible because assistive technology cannot interpret the image data. To meet WCAG 2.1 AA, the content needs to be converted into a digital, text-based format.

For documents that stay in Word, re-type the notes using the built-in Equation Editor, which produces equations screen readers can interpret.

For math published on the web, HTML with MathML or MathJax is the more reliable route. Be aware that exporting Word equations to PDF frequently discards the equation semantics, so if the final destination is a webpage, author it as a webpage rather than converting through PDF. Faculty who already write in LaTeX can generate accessible web output directly from their source.

Silktide currently has a file size limit of 50MB. We strongly recommend "pulling out" PDF content and converting it into standard HTML web pages whenever possible.

Thesis and dissertation submission requirements are set by the Graduate School, not by the Digital Accessibility team. Direct questions about those requirements to the Graduate School.

Our role is to support the outcome. We are working on PDF remediation tooling that will help students and faculty produce more accessible documents, and we will publish guidance for thesis and dissertation authors as that work progresses.

Microsoft Forms are generally accessible out of the box. Customization can introduce issues, particularly custom themes with poor color contrast, images used without alternative text, and questions whose meaning depends on a background image.

The DOJ web rule covers web content and mobile applications. A flyer that exists only as a physical printed handout is not covered by that particular rule, and if you post the digital file online, the file itself must be accessible.

Print is not exempt from the ADA, however. Effective communication obligations still require the university to provide printed materials in an accessible format on request, such as large print, braille, or an accessible electronic version. Plan for that possibility rather than treating print as outside the scope of accessibility altogether. Designing the source file accessibly from the start makes fulfilling such a request straightforward.

This flag appears when spaces, tabs, or non-breaking spaces are used to create visual layout inside text, labels, or table cells. It is a legitimate issue rather than a cosmetic one. Screen readers may announce runs of whitespace character by character, or break a phrase into fragments that no longer read as a sentence, which maps to WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence.

The fix is usually quick. Remove the padding characters and produce the spacing with CSS margin or padding, with a real table structure where the content is tabular, or with a list where the content is a list. If you are not sure how to reproduce the intended layout without the extra spaces, contact digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu.

Yes. We encourage all employees, including faculty, staff, and student assistants, to attend trainings. Introductory and advanced sessions are listed on the Digital Accessibility training calendar.

Every time a new staff member takes editing control of a webpage, that person needs to go through accessibility training. We offer training consistently throughout the year to accommodate staff changes.

If you need assistance with navigating Modern Campus, please contact mc.web@ttu.edu for training opportunities.

Current and upcoming sessions on PDFs, presentations, and documents are posted on the Digital Accessibility training calendar. Recordings of past sessions are available there as well.

If you need training for a specific team before the next scheduled session, email digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu and we will arrange a departmental session.

Side scrolling is generally caused by content within the main body of the page, such as wide tables or large images, that breaks the responsive layout. This maps to WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow, a Level AA criterion, so it does need to be fixed.

Please contact digitalaccessibility@ttu.edu if you need assistance troubleshooting this issue.

For errors related to the Modern Campus CMS, source code, or stylesheets that you cannot edit, please contact the Modern Campus team at mc.web@ttu.edu. The Digital Accessibility team does not manage CMS functionality.

If Silktide flags pages that you cannot see or locate within the CMS to delete, please contact the Modern Campus team at mc.web@ttu.edu for resolution. Our team does not control the CMS file structure.

We cannot verify information inside PDFs hosted outside TTU servers, so a manual check is required. Removing obsolete or broken links improves your site's score and, more importantly, keeps users from hitting dead ends.

Remember that you are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party documents you do not control. You are responsible for the links on your own pages working and describing where they go. See "How do we handle links to external PDFs we don't control?" above.