The Drupal Accessibility Control Map is a free checklist that maps every WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criterion, and Section 508, to the Drupal core feature, contributed module, or configuration that satisfies it. It helps university accessibility leads confirm what the platform covers by default, assign what their team must own, and test conformance across representative templates. Building to WCAG 2.2 AA clears Section 508, the ADA Title II web rule, and the six criteria new in WCAG 2.2 in a single pass.
Most accessibility audits hand teams a list of failures without clarifying which the platform already prevents and which the team must own. That gap is where conformance erodes between reviews. The Drupal Accessibility Control Map closes it by pairing each Level A and AA criterion with the specific Drupal control that addresses it. Authored content and custom JavaScript components are the two areas where platform conformance is most often lost in practice.
What is the Drupal Accessibility Control Map?
The Drupal Accessibility Control Map is a platform-coverage checklist for university accessibility leads and digital directors. It documents how Drupal satisfies each WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criterion at the platform level, separates the criteria within Section 508's incorporated standard from those newer to WCAG 2.1 and 2.2, and provides teams with a structure for logging conformance by criterion, owner, and date.
What does Drupal cover for accessibility by default?
Drupal's accessibility coding standards target WCAG 2.2 AA for public-facing output and ATAG 2.0 for authoring interfaces. Drupal core runs axe-core in its automated test suite. Drupal CMS ships a WCAG AA front-end, mandatory alt text, semantic HTML, and a built-in content accessibility checker, Editoria11y, by default. This is a strong baseline to verify against, not a substitute for testing a team's own templates, content, and custom components.
Which accessibility standards apply to university websites?
Three layers apply, and building to WCAG 2.2 AA clears all of them. Section 508 incorporates WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. The ADA Title II web rule, published in 2024, requires WCAG 2.1 AA. WCAG 2.2, finalized by the W3C in October 2023, adds six new success criteria and is the current target layer. Compliance dates under the ADA Title II rule, as extended by the April 2026 interim final rule, are April 26, 2027 for entities with 50,000 or more employees and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special districts.
What's inside the checklist
- A criterion-by-criterion control map pairing every WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criterion with the Drupal core feature, module, or configuration that satisfies it
- A 508 column that separates the incorporated standard from newer criteria, including the six new in WCAG 2.2
- A four-pass testing method: automated scan, keyboard and screen reader pass, authored-content sample, and a log against the map with owner and date
- Procurement guidance on what to request in an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), for the platform and for each contributed module in scope
Who is the Drupal Accessibility Control Map for?
It is written for university accessibility leads and digital directors who are accountable for conformance but need to separate what the Drupal platform guarantees from what their team and content authors must maintain.
Vardot's view (labeled POV module)
The criteria that erode between audits are the ones authors touch daily: alt text, headings, link text, captions, and forms, plus any custom JavaScript component. A newer watch point is Drupal Canvas, now the default visual builder, which assembles pages from a component library, so accessibility follows the components and theme a team provides. The durable response is governance, not one-time fixes: accessible patterns baked into the component library and Editoria11y running site-wide. Vardot brings this to higher-ed platforms as a Drupal Diamond Certified Partner with more than 200 launched platforms, including Georgetown University.
