Key Takeaways from this Update
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Deadline Extension: The federal digital accessibility mandate is now April 26, 2027.
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No Slowdown: Our project timeline and phase goals remain unchanged.
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Phase 2 Kickoff: We begin reaching out to Phase 2 site admins next week.
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The "90 Score" Myth: A Silktide score of 90 is a great start, but it only covers about 40.8% of total WCAG AA barriers.
The federal mandate deadline
If you haven’t yet heard, the federal government has extended the digital accessibility mandate deadline by 1 year to April 26, 2027.
While this is a relief of the pressure valve for many of us, it does not change the charge of the Sites digital accessibility project team, nor does it change our projected phase timeline. We are doing this work not just because it is required of us, but because it is the right thing to do. We sincerely appreciate all the hard work that has been done and is ongoing with our Phase 1 site admins and websites, and we look forward to beginning to reach out to Phase 2 site admins starting next week!
We also wanted to address an ongoing conversation we’ve been having a little more directly, which is:
“If my site is at a Silktide score of 90, does that mean I’m done?”
The short answer: It means you are making really great progress towards accessibility and probably have no huge accessibility red flags, but likely there is still further work to be done. Silktide can’t check for all of the accessibility barriers that the Sites digital accessibility project team is evaluating for.
The much longer answer….
To help you understand what the Silktide score actually means, here’s a breakdown of what it includes and what it does not include.
The Silktide Accessibility Score includes:
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All automated checks (the first tab of checks when you open the accessibility checks panel)
The Silktide Accessibility Score DOES NOT include:
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All assisted checks (the second tab of checks when you open the accessibility checks panel)
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Most PDFs (each Site has been allocated 1 PDF in Silktide)
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Any embedded or linked google files (docs, sheets, slides, etc), Microsoft files (docs, excel, powerpoint, etc)
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Any embedded or linked media (videos, audio files, etc)
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Any evaluation of the function of your site’s navigation
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Any evaluation of the cognitive or mental load of your website: Can people find what they are looking for easily? How many clicks does it take to find something? Is information organized in a way that is straightforward?
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A full evaluation of screenreader function: Silktide can evaluate most of the technical aspects (Can a screen reader read this to someone?) but it can’t evaluate if it is being done well, or makes logical or cognitive sense.
Per Silktide’s help articles:
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Silktide can only guarantee that your Silktide Accessibility score covers 40.8% of all possible accessibility barriers identified in the WCAG AA guidelines.
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75% of WCAG AA guidelines are covered in Automated OR Assisted checks, meaning an unknown quantity of those aren’t counted in the Accessibility module score.
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24.5% of all WCAG AA guidelines Silktide cannot evaluate at all.
(source)
Silktide is an excellent tool that we are thrilled to be using, it is a huge improvement and a leg-up on the digital accessibility process! Without it, it would take us many more manual hours of repetitive checking for the many fixes, both big and small, that it can tell us are needed. At the end of the day, however, it is just a tool, and the digital accessibility process requires the human touch to do well, and the project team is here to help provide that!
If you are working ahead of the project team and you have gotten your site up to a Silktide Accessibility score of 90, you have done fantastic work, and we are excited to help you polish up the remainder.
Proactive Steps You Can Take
If you are working ahead of the project team and you have gotten your site up to a Silktide Accessibility score of 90, you have done fantastic work, and we are excited to help you polish up the remainder.
If you want to keep going, here are some options for you:
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Start working through your Silktide accessibility assisted checks, found in the second tab of the accessibility checks panel
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Review your Site’s media storage and start deleting anything not currently in use
If you have any questions about your score, this process, or anything about digital accessibility, head to one of our upcoming drop-in clinics or put in a Sites RT, we’re happy to help!