Get safety guidance for CEHD classes and offices this spring.

Accessibility Reports

Accessibility overview

We scanned 3,211 pages across our sites to check for accessibility issues.

The good news is that the number of real problems is very low.

In total, the scan found 280 confirmed errors, which comes out to less than one error for every ten pages. Most pages have no errors at all.

Most departments have zero or just a handful of errors. Nearly all of the remaining findings are alerts, which are not failures. Alerts are reminders for people to look at something and decide if it needs attention.

This tells us that our overall accessibility foundation is strong. What we need now are a few focused fixes, not large-scale changes.

The good news

7 of 13 websites have ZERO accessibility errors:

Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) — 356 pages ✓
Department of Curriculum and Instruction — 236 pages ✓
Department of Family Social Science — 201 pages ✓
Innovation Websites — 107 pages ✓
Institute of Child Development — 213 pages ✓
School of Kinesiology — 292 pages ✓
Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport — 13 pages ✓

Chart of errors and alerts by site. Contact CEHDweb@umn.edu for more details.

Understanding errors vs. alerts

Errors = Definite accessibility failures that WILL cause problems for users with disabilities. These must be fixed.

Alerts = Potential issues that need human review. Not all alerts are problems — some are just things WAVE flags for you to check (like "long alt text" or "redundant link").

Next steps

Click on one of the below links for your respective site.
Fix errors where applicable and review any alerts to confirm they are not errors.
- See below for resources with the most common errors and WAVE guide.
- Contact Mohamed with any questions or help. Feel free to slack or email.
See this spreadsheet of other PopeTech Sites and make sure all sites under your department are listed. We need to make sure all public facing.

Department sheets

CEED

5 Most common errors

1. Empty link (174 pages affected)

What it means: A link exists but has no text inside it — screen readers announce "link" but can't tell users where it goes.

Typical cause: Icon-only links, image links without alt text, or links with only whitespace.

Example to review:
Connect Magazine: Coming home to lead and inspire

2. Very low contrast (65 pages affected)

What it means: Text color doesn't have enough contrast against its background, making it hard to read for users with low vision or color blindness.

WCAG requirement: Normal text needs 4.5:1 contrast ratio; large text needs 3:1.

Example to review:
Child Development Lab: Full-day program classrooms

3. Linked image missing alternative text (6 pages affected)

What it means: An image that acts as a link has no alt text, so screen reader users don't know what the link does.

Example to review:
CEHD: Brian Lozenski selected as Bush Fellow

4. Empty heading (3 pages affected)

What it means: A heading tag (h1, h2, etc.) exists but contains no text. Screen readers announce "heading level 2" with nothing after it.

Example to review:
Child Development Lab: Part-day program classrooms

5. YouTube Video missing captions (1 page affected)

What it means: An embedded YouTube video doesn't have captions enabled, excluding deaf/hard-of-hearing users.

Example to review:
OLPD: Workforce Development and Research Lab

WAVE quick reference guide

What is WAVE?

WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) is a free tool from WebAIM that checks web pages for accessibility issues. You don't need to install anything — it works right in your browser.

How to use WAVE (no installation required)

Method 1: Direct URL

Add your page URL to this base link:

http://wave.webaim.org/report#/[YOUR-PAGE-URL]

Example: http://wave.webaim.org/report#/https://www.cehd.umn.edu/news/ci-alum-selected-as-bush-fellow

Method 2: WAVE website

Go to https://wave.webaim.org
Paste your URL in the search box
Click the arrow button

Reading WAVE Results

Icons to know

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Icon color

Meaning

Action

---

🔴 Red

Error

Must fix — definite accessibility barrier

🟡 Yellow

Alert

Review — potential issue, needs human judgment

🟢 Green

Feature

Good — accessibility feature detected

🔵 Blue

Structural

Info — shows page structure (headings, etc.)

🟣 Purple

ARIA

Info — shows ARIA attributes used

The sidebar tabs

Summary — Overview of all issues found Details — List of each specific issue with descriptions Reference — In-depth info about each error type Structure — Shows heading hierarchy and landmarks Contrast — Shows all contrast issues

Common errors and how to fix them

Empty link

Problem: Link has no text
Fix: Add descriptive text inside the link, or add aria-label attribute

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Very low contrast

Problem: Text is hard to read against background
Fix: Use darker text or lighter background. Use a contrast checker to verify 4.5:1 ratio.

Missing alt text

Problem: Image has no description
Fix: Add alt attribute with meaningful description

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Empty heading

Problem: Heading tag exists but is empty
Fix: Add text to the heading, or remove the empty heading tag

Missing captions

Problem: Video doesn't have captions
Fix: Add captions in YouTube Studio, or upload a caption file

Pro tips

Click any icon in WAVE to highlight the element on your page
Check before publishing — make it part of your workflow
Fix errors first — alerts are secondary
Template issues affect all pages — fix once, help everywhere
Use the contrast checker at https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

WAVE Chrome Extension (optional)

If you prefer, you can install the WAVE Chrome Extension for one-click testing: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wave-evaluation-tool/jbbplnpkjmmeebjpijfedlgcdilocofh

Once installed, just click the WAVE icon in your toolbar while on any page.

Resources

WebAIM WAVE: https://wave.webaim.org
Contrast Checker: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
WebAIM Accessibility Principles: https://webaim.org/intro/
University of Minnesota Accessibility: https://accessibility.umn.edu

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