Accessibility rarely breaks on purpose. It breaks in small gaps: a brand color that looked fine on a someone's monitor, an image uploaded in a hurry, a heading chosen for its size and not hierarchical level. The February 2026 WebAIM Million report found detectable WCAG failures on 95.9% of the top one million home pages, averaging 56 errors per page.
University sites feel it most: they are large, and many hands publish to them. As a higher education website redesign agency, here is what we see most in audits.
Common mistakes
Low contrast text
The most common failure, present on 83.9% of pages WebAIM tested. WCAG asks for a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for body text and 3:1 for large text, and plenty of beloved palettes do not clear it. A tint adjustment for text usually solves it. Accessible website design for universities does not mean a duller website.
Missing or vague alt text
Alt text should describe what an image communicates, not everything it shows. Charts, infographics, and photos carrying real information need it; decorative images should be marked decorative so screen readers skip them.
Unlabeled form fields
Inquiry forms, application portals, and event registrations often lean on placeholder text instead of true labels, leaving screen reader users guessing. Missing labels appeared on about half the pages WebAIM scanned.
Empty links, empty buttons, and "click here"
Icon-only buttons with no accessible name, and links reading "read more," give no context out of sequence. "Learn more about financial aid" tells a keyboard or screen reader user exactly where they are going. Clear labeling also improves user experience on college websites.
Headings used as decoration
Heading levels are structure, not styling. Skipping from H2 to H4 for smaller type breaks the outline screen reader users navigate by.
No plan for the people who publish
Fixes hold only if content editors know the rules, and departmental subsites drift fastest. Accessible components built into templates protect the work long after launch, whether the project is WordPress website design for universities or a Drupal website redesign. Higher ed teams that train their editors stay compliant far longer.
Where to start
Institutions often search for "WCAG certified accessible website design," but no official WCAG certification body exists. Conformance is something you test, document, and maintain. Any design company can run an automated scan, but scans catch only part of WCAG; manual and assistive technology testing still matter.
An audit tells you what is broken, what is urgent, and what belongs in a full university website redesign process. Accessibility work also improves what leadership cares about: clearer navigation, better engagement, and stronger ROI on a college website redesign. For a quick win, see our 5 quick accessibility improvements.
Opus is a Boston design studio and Certified B Corporation, and ADA compliant website design for higher ed is core to how we build. As you evaluate top higher education web design companies, ask each design firm how accessibility shows up in their process, not just their proposal.
Let's build something great (and accessible) together
