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Archiving Workflow and Guidance

Overview

In accordance with the updated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Boise State University must ensure all public-facing web content meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards by April 24, 2026.

While the university provides resources for remediation, “Archived Web Content” is a specific legal exception that allows us to retain historical records without proactive remediation, provided they meet strict criteria.

For more details about these requirements, review Title II Accessibility Requirements.

What qualifies as an exception?

To qualify for the exception, an individual page or document must meet all of the following:

  1. Creation Date: Created before April 24, 2026.
  2. Purpose: Retained exclusively for research, reference, or record-keeping.
  3. No Alterations: Content has not been edited or updated since being archived.
  4. Dedicated Location: Stored in a clearly labeled “Archive” area (Boise State uses the Archive-It.org collection). If you want or need to pursue a different method of archiving content, contact the WordPress Support Team through the Help Desk to discuss options.

Examples of High-Priority Targets for Individual Page Archiving

The following categories of pages are ideal candidates for archiving rather than manual remediation:

  • Volume-Heavy Pages: Pages containing 10+ PDFs or 5+ videos (e.g., past conference recordings or board meeting minutes from 2022 or earlier).
  • Legacy Artifacts: Syllabi, guest lectures, or student handbooks from semesters concluded prior to 2026.
  • Sunsetted Programs: Sites for grant-funded projects or labs that are no longer active.
  • Past Event Landing Pages: Pages for events that have already occurred where registration is closed.

Identify Target Pages Using DubBot

The University Web Team has pre-configured three specific Accessibility Policies in DubBot to automatically flag candidates for archiving. Use these reports to prioritize your workload:

Policy A: Archive Review – Year in Heading 1

  • What it flags: Pages where the main title contains a year prior to 2026 (e.g., “Fall 2022 Speaker Series”).
  • Action: If the event or course is over, these are 100% archive candidates.

Policy B: Archive Review – 10+ pdfs on a page

  • What it flags: Pages containing 10 or more links to PDFs.
  • Action: Review if these are “Current” documents. If they are old meeting minutes or past reports, they should be archived to avoid the massive task of tagging dozens of individual files.

Policy C: Archive Review – 5+ videos on a page

  • What it flags: Pages with 5 or more embedded videos on a single page.
  • Action: Video remediation (captions and audio descriptions) is time-intensive. If these are recordings of past events, moving the page to the Archive-It link and creating a dedicated “Archive” playlist on your YouTube channel is the most efficient compliance path.

Accessing the Policies in DubBot

To access these policies in DubBot: 

  1. Login to your DubBot account
  2. From the Page Set Dashboard, select Accessibility Issues
  3. In the list of issues, look for Archive Review – [Year in heading 1, 10+ PDFs on a page, 5+ videos on a page]
  4. Select the number of affected pages for the policy you want to review to access the list of pages that match the criteria
  5. Review each page and make a decision, if a page qualifies as an exception and can be archived, follow the guidance under the Archiving Pages and Documents or Archiving Videos sections of this page to archive the content. 
  6. If the page does not qualify for an exception, it must be remediated to meet accessibility requirements. Follow the guidance provided in DubBot for details on fixing accessibility issues.

Archiving Pages and Documents

  1. Verify Archive Capture: Confirm the page is already captured in the Boise State Archive-It collection. If you want or need to pursue a different method of archiving content, contact the WordPress Support Team through the Help Desk to discuss options.
  2. Retrieve Wayback URL: Copy the specific URL for that page from the Archive-It interface.
  3. Place Redirect/Link: On your live site, remove the inaccessible content and replace it with a descriptive link to the Archive-It version (e.g., “View 2020 Conference Records [Archived for Reference]”).
  4. Add Disclaimer to live page with archive links: On your live WordPress page with the archive links, add the following disclaimer statement: “This page is maintained for historical reference, research, or record-keeping purposes only. The materials here were created prior to April 24, 2026, and are no longer updated. As archived content, these resources may not meet current accessibility standards. If you require this content in a different format, please contact accessibility@boisestate.edu.”
  5. Unpublish Original: Move the live WordPress page of the archived content to “Trash” or “Draft” status to ensure it is no longer being crawled as an active page.

Archiving Videos

If a page contains multiple videos, you may choose to move them to a dedicated YouTube Playlist instead of relying solely on the Archive-it capture.

  1. Create a Dedicated Playlist on your YouTube channel: Title it ARCHIVED: [Event Name] [Year].
  2. Set Privacy to Unlisted: This ensures the videos are only viewable by those with the link from our archive page.
  3. Add playlist description: Each video and the playlist itself must contain the following “Archived Content” disclaimer and a contact email for accessibility requests. “This playlist is maintained for historical reference, research, or record-keeping purposes only. The materials here were created prior to April 24, 2026, and are no longer updated. As archived content, these resources may not meet current accessibility standards. If you require this content in a different format, please contact accessibility@boisestate.edu.”
  4. Link from the Archive Page: On your Boise State /archive page, provide the link to the full archived YouTube playlist.
  5. Remove from Live Site: Delete the video embeds from the active WordPress page and unpublish the page.

Providing Accommodations 

The archive exception does not exempt the university from individual requests. If a person with a disability requests an accessible version of archived content (e.g., a transcript for an archived 2020 video), the department or area must provide it in a timely manner.

Questions or Assistance

For questions or assistance identifying pages for archiving, contact the Web Strategy Team at WebStrategy@BoiseState.edu.