Understanding CMS Template Accessibility

Learn how WTS addresses accessibility concerns in CMS templates.

Creating an accessible website in the CMS is a team effort. Workplace Technology Services (WTS) continually reviews and makes improvements to the CMS templates. Some of these improvements require pages or the entire site to be published. Site owners and editors should be reviewing the content of their site, following best practices for CMS accessibility and using Siteimprove to find specific issues.

Benefits of using CMS templates

CMS templates are reviewed for accessibility improvements on an ongoing basis. By using these templates, you benefit from the work that our team at WTS  does to maintain accessible features behind the scenes.

Content vs. template issues

Generally speaking, site owners and editors should be focusing on content issues, e.g. heading structure, missing alt text, broken links, etc. See our instructions for filtering Siteimprove results to show only content issues. 

Examples of template-level items:

• modules, e.g. news with images
• header and font styles
• button styling

How we handle template‑level issues

You may see some template-level items flagged as issues in Siteimprove. We review these regularly and are currently prioritizing  A- and AA-level issues based on our commitment to conform with WCAG 2.1 AA standards  and the number of sites impacted.

• A- and AA-level: We regularly scan for these issues in Siteimprove and fix them as needed.
• S‑ or AAA‑level: These best-practice issues are already on our radar and are not currently being prioritized.

If you have questions or would like to bring something to our attention, you can contact wts@ucsd.edu.

Recently addressed template issues

WTS is prioritizing over a dozen template issues as of the beginning of 2026. As they are completed, they will be listed here. Check this list for issues that require republishing.