St. Olaf uses a set of technologies designed to identify, mitigate, and prevent accessibility errors across the college’s 300+ sites:
Equalize Digital Accessibility Checker
This plugin is the primary tool for site administrators. It allows Key Admins to view and fix errors on a page-by-page basis directly within the WordPress interface.
Acquia Optimize
While the Accessibility Checker handles individual pages, Acquia Optimize is used for broad monitoring. It allows the Web Team to track site health, set accessibility benchmarks, and produce reports for individual sites across the network.
Adobe Acrobat Pro
Because PDFs are not inherently accessible, the college advises publishing content in more accessible formats. We encourage staff to use original source documents, such as Google Docs and Sheets or Microsoft Word and Excel.
Diagnostic and Prioritization Tools
The college uses Google Analytics and third-party audits (such as those from Wrangle, LLC) to identify high-traffic areas that require immediate attention. Additionally, Key Admins use browser extensions like Axe Accessibility and Accessibility Insights to identify complex errors that automated plugins might miss.
Community Feedback
The college has an Accessibility Incidence Form that enables the broader St. Olaf community to report new or unresolved issues, acting as a final layer of quality control.