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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.

Examples of template-level items:

  • modules
  • header and font styles
  • button styling

You may see some template-level items may flagged as issues in Siteimprove. We review these regularly, but if you would like to bring something to our attention, you can contact wts@ucsd.edu. Our team prioritizes template-level updates based on the WCAG conformance level (A, AA, etc.) and the number of sites impacted. 

Generally speaking, site owners and editors should be focusing on content issues. See our instructions for filtering Siteimprove results to show only content issues.

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.

Table showing recent Siteimprove accessibility fixes

Year

Month

Issue WCAG Level Requires Publishing?
2026 01 Search button missing hover highlight and focus indicator n/a No
2025 12 Container element is empty (profile page tabs section) A Yes
2025 12 Role not inside the required context (profile page tab content) A Yes