Getting Started With the Pope Tech Accessibility Tool

Introduction to Pope Tech

All public-facing websites at Utah State University are regularly scanned for accessibility problems in a tool called Pope Tech. Pope Tech was developed in Logan, Utah, and is based on the WAVE tool developed by WebAIM at USU. This tool is available to anyone who manages web content at the University. Pope Tech gives you an overview of your website’s accessibility status via interactive reports that you can use to locate and resolve specific issues.

The Digital Accessibility Services team will take care of adding websites to Pope Tech and regularly scanning them for errors. You can access the reports they generate in Pope Tech, or have them sent to you via scheduled emails. We encourage you to stay up to date on your website’s accessibility status to make sure your content is accessible and inclusive.

Note: It is important to remember that Pope Tech is an automated accessibility checker and while it is helpful in identifying some common errors, it cannot determine whether your site is completely accessible.

Who Pope Tech Is For

Anyone who contributes to your website in any way can benefit from access to Pope Tech. We can even set up access in Pope Tech so that people only see accessibility feedback for the parts of the website that they have permission to edit. For example, if someone only manages the content area of a site and doesn’t have access to the header or footer, we can set it up so that they don't see any errors in those areas.

Logging in to Pope Tech

On the Pope Tech Login page, enter your USU Email address. Wait a moment, and Pope Tech should automatically select "SSO" as your Login Mode:

The Pope Tech login screen with a message that says SSO Domain or Email detected.
Click the Login button to go to the USU Login page.

If you don’t already have a Pope Tech account, send us an email and request access to your reports. Be sure to include:

Your A-number.
The URL(s) of the website(s) that you are responsible for.

After we’ve created your account, you will receive a welcome email that lets you know your login is ready.

Pope Tech Help

There are lots of resources available to help you get started using Pope Tech, beginning with these instructions.

Once you have reviewed the basics here, take a look at the Pope Tech Help Center (available from the top of every page) where you can find lots of documentation and resources:

Pope Tech Help Center Button.

In addition, you are welcome to reach out to the IT Web Team for sites hosted in Omni CMS or schedule some time with Digital Accessibility Services to go over your reports.

Important Terminology

The following terms are used throughout Pope Tech. Understanding what they mean will help you prioritize your efforts to make your website more accessible.

Errors: The most important issues that are most likely to create barriers to users with disabilities.
Alerts: Present accessibility issues, but require human review to check if a correction is needed.
Structure: HTML elements such as headings and lists that make up your site.
Features: Elements of your website that generally make it more accessible when implemented correctly.
ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications): A category of HTML elements that can be used to improve accessibility. They usually require a manual review to ensure accessibility.
Scan: A review of all the pages on your website to check for accessibility issues. We have set these up to occur on a monthly basis, but can run them more often if needed.
Groups: Collections of websites sometimes created for users who manage multiple sites.

Once you are logged in, you are ready to become familiar with your Pope Tech dashboard and start working on making your site more accessible!