Why did we go with Silktide?
UCD IT Services conducted an in depth product review comparing 9 different accessibility platforms. While many of these were very attractive, we ultimately decided that Silktide was the one best suited for our needs. UCD has hundreds of websites managed by many different individuals and teams, and we needed a tool that would allow for many users to have the ability to manage and improve their own content. Silktide provides automated testing of our sites with comprehensive metrics we can measure by, and useful tools that make improving our websites easy.
For more information on Silktide, see what they have to say on their (opens in a new window)support page.
How to Login?
Working with Silktide, we have integrated a single sign on (SSO) approach to logging into Silktide. Anyone with an @ucd.ie account will be able to login to Silktide. When logged in you will have the most basic level of permissions, but this will still allow you to view all of the UCD websites and how they are performing. Individuals who have defined roles and responsibilities for managing and editing specific websites will be able to get higher levels of permissions.
(opens in a new window)Login to Silktide
Responsibilities and Expectations
When working with a robust platform that offers so many services like Silktide it's important to understand what the specific responsibilities are for various kinds of users and what the expectations are for using the tools. We can look at this from what IT Services will do, and what the larger UCD population will do.
IT Services:
- Publish and update the University Web Accessibility Statement (a requirement for the EU web accessibility directive)
- Generate a bi-monthly accessibility report that charts progress and updates accessibility scoring
- Make development fixes for accessibility issues to sites using the Design Library
- Monitor overall progress towards compliance
UCD Silktide Users:
- Use Silktide to monitor the content and accessibility sections of your websites and;
- Make changes/updates to your website to improve the accessibility score
- If you are unable to make the changes yourself you will get in touch with the appropriate person that can do so
Getting Familiar with Using Silktide
We have developed a video that will walk you through using the Silktide interface.
There is also a very valuable resource provided by Silktide, the Silktide Academy, which offers courses that better explain how to get the most out of their products and introducing concepts around web accessibility. We highly recommend getting enrolled and completing the courses offered.