Cascade has built-in tools to help review page content for broken links and accessibility issues. You may use these tools as a first-line review of your page content. The university is also using other tools to  monitor pages for these issues.

NOTE: These tools may detect issues on your page that are actually false positives. Review the results carefully.

Link Check

The Link Check ensures that all links between assets in the system and links to external resources are valid. The Broken Link column lists the URL of the broken link, and the Link Text column lists the text wrapped for hyperlinks or the tag name for other types of links. You can click the question mark icon (?) to the left of each link for more information on why the link is considered invalid.

You have two options for handling each broken link:

• Ignore - Disregard the link.
• Fix - Enter a corrected URL in a text box (for external links) or choose an asset within Cascade (for internal links).

NOTE: In some cases, external links that redirect to a different URL are incorrectly flagged as broken, even though they are still functional. You may wish to check these links yourself outside of the Link Check interface to ensure they're working as expected.

Accessibility Check 

The Accessibility content check ensures WYSIWYG content complies with the following accessibility guidelines:

• Image (img) tags must have alternate text describing the graphic. (Section 508 / WCAG 2.0)
• Table captions should not be empty. (HTML5 recommendation.)

For each issue found, you have the following options:

• View Non-Compliant Content - View the specific HTML markup flagged during the check.
• Ignore - Disregard the issue.
• Fix - Enter a value for the missing or flagged content. For example: alternate text for an image or caption for a table.

NOTE: The university is scanning all pages published to the JMU Homepage for accessibility issues. Do not rely on this tool to find all accessibility issues with your content.

You can use the built-in Accessibility Checker at any time to assess a page for accessibility issues.

1. While viewing a page click More > Check Page Accessibility. The accessibility checker opens on the right side of your window and will show accessibility issues ranked by priortity.
2. Filter the results to show WCAG Level "A and AA". 
3. Fix any level A or AA issues to the best of your ability.
   • NOTE: Some issues may be identified at the template level that you cannot address (ie. issues with navigation or search box). These issues are being resolved sitewide by IT and Digital Marketing.