Showing Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites. All education sites
R1 and R2 universities in the Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, public and private together. Metro boundaries follow the Census definition, so a page can cross state lines.
A 94
Average accessibility score of 5 fully scanned Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites
3rd
of 8 metro areas, ranked by average accessibility score
5 of 7
Washington, dc-va-md-wv research university sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 2, so they're listed without grades
A 91
Average accessibility score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites
How Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV accessibility scores are distributed
Smoothed distribution of the 5 fully scanned Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.
Distribution of 5 scores. The data table lists counts by score range.
- Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV average
- All education average
View the data table
| Score range | Sites |
|---|---|
| 0 to 9 | 0 |
| 10 to 19 | 0 |
| 20 to 29 | 0 |
| 30 to 39 | 0 |
| 40 to 49 | 0 |
| 50 to 59 | 0 |
| 60 to 69 | 0 |
| 70 to 79 | 0 |
| 80 to 89 | 1 |
| 90 to 100 | 4 |
Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research universities by accessibility grade, compared with all education sites
Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research universities: 5 sites. All education: 2687 sites.
- A (90 to 100)
- B to C (70 to 89)
- D to F (below 70)
View the data table
| Group | A (90 to 100) | B to C (70 to 89) | D to F (below 70) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV | 80% (4) | 20% (1) | 0% (0) |
| All education sites | 66% (1,765) | 33% (888) | 1% (34) |
Top 3 Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV research university sites by accessibility score
#1 in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV · U.S. education rank 1
The Catholic University of America
A 100 accessibility
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security B
- Usability F
- Readability A
#2 in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV · U.S. education rank 3
University of Maryland-College Park
A 96 accessibility
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability F
#3 in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV · U.S. education rank 6
George Washington University
A 93 accessibility
- Accessibility A
- Botability C
- Security B
- Usability A
- Readability F
What each check means
- Links have a discernible name. Links have unique, descriptive text so users know where they go. Screen reader users cannot identify or interact with elements.
- Heading elements appear in a sequentially-descending order. Page headings follow a logical order without skipping levels. Keyboard users cannot efficiently navigate your site.
- Background and foreground colors have a sufficient contrast ratio. Text and background colors meet minimum contrast ratios. Users with low vision cannot read your text.
- Elements with role="dialog" or role="alertdialog" have accessible names. Dialog boxes have labels so screen readers can describe their purpose. Screen readers cannot tell users what a dialog box is for.
- Elements with visible text labels have matching accessible names. A button or link's visible label matches what screen readers announce. Voice control users cannot activate elements by their visible label.
Research universities in Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV by accessibility score
| Rank | Site | Checks passed | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
catholic.edu
The Catholic University of America U.S. rank 1 |
29 of 29 checks pass | A |
| 2 |
umd.edu
University of Maryland-College Park U.S. rank 3 |
24 of 25 checks pass | A |
| 3 |
gwu.edu
George Washington University U.S. rank 6 |
30 of 32 checks pass | A |
| 3 |
howard.edu
Howard University U.S. rank 6 |
27 of 29 checks pass | A |
| 4 |
georgetown.edu
Georgetown University U.S. rank 12 |
28 of 32 checks pass | B |
|
american.edu
American University |
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't scan your site because it showed our bot a captcha or browser check instead of the page. Status 996 | - | |
|
gmu.edu
George Mason University |
Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 | - |
About accessibility
Meet WCAG standards so every type of user can use your website.
Why it's important
People with disabilities need equal access to information and services online.
Risks
- People with disabilities cannot use your site.
Guidance
What we use to grade accessibility:
Standards
- [accesskey] values are unique
- [aria-*] attributes match their roles
- Uses ARIA roles only on compatible elements
- button, link, and menuitem elements have accessible names
- ARIA attributes are used as specified for the element's role
- Deprecated ARIA roles were not used
- Elements with role="dialog" or role="alertdialog" have accessible names
- [aria-hidden="true"] is not present on the document <body>
- [aria-hidden="true"] elements do not contain focusable descendents
- ARIA input fields have accessible names
- ARIA meter elements have accessible names
- ARIA progressbar elements have accessible names
- Elements use only permitted ARIA attributes
- [role]s have all required [aria-*] attributes
- Elements with an ARIA [role] that require children to contain a specific [role] have all required children
- [role]s are contained by their required parent element
- [role] values are valid
- Elements with the role=text attribute do not have focusable descendents
- ARIA toggle fields have accessible names
- ARIA tooltip elements have accessible names
- ARIA treeitem elements have accessible names
- [aria-*] attributes have valid values
- [aria-*] attributes are valid and not misspelled
- Buttons have an accessible name
- The page contains a heading, skip link, or landmark region
- Background and foreground colors have a sufficient contrast ratio
- <dl>'s contain only properly-ordered <dt> and <dd> groups, <script>, <template> or <div> elements
- Definition list items are wrapped in <dl> elements
- Document has a <title> element
- ARIA IDs are unique
- No form fields have multiple labels
- <frame> or <iframe> elements have a title
- Heading elements appear in a sequentially-descending order
- <html> element has a [lang] attribute
- <html> element has a valid value for its [lang] attribute
- <html> element has an [xml:lang] attribute with the same base language as the [lang] attribute
- Image elements have [alt] attributes
- Image elements do not have [alt] attributes that are redundant text
- Input buttons have discernible text
- <input type="image"> elements have [alt] text
- Form elements have associated labels
- Links are distinguishable without relying on color
- Links have a discernible name
- Lists contain only <li> elements and script supporting elements (<script> and <template>)
- List items (<li>) are contained within <ul>, <ol> or <menu> parent elements
- The document does not use <meta http-equiv="refresh">
- [user-scalable="no"] is not used in the <meta name="viewport"> element and the [maximum-scale] attribute is not less than 5
- <object> elements have alternate text
- Select elements have associated label elements
- Skip links are focusable
- No element has a [tabindex] value greater than 0
- Tables have different content in the summary attribute and <caption>
- Touch targets have sufficient size and spacing
- Cells in a <table> element that use the [headers] attribute refer to table cells within the same table
- <th> elements and elements with [role="columnheader"/"rowheader"] have data cells they describe
- [lang] attributes have a valid value
- <video> elements contain a <track> element with [kind="captions"]
- All heading elements contain content
- Identical links have the same purpose
- Document has a main landmark
- Elements with visible text labels have matching accessible names
- Tables use <caption> instead of cells with the [colspan] attribute to indicate a caption
- <td> elements in a large <table> have one or more table headers
- Image aspect ratio
- Valid doctype
- Character encoding
Grades/scores
ScanGov
About this ranking
About this data
ScanGov scans the homepage of each college and university site on our higher education list. Scores come from the checks in the ScanGov standards. Sites were scanned between 10/28/2026 and 11/8/2026. Each site's report shows its own scan date. A site counts as fully scanned when its homepage loaded and sent us its page content. Averages, grade shares, failure rates, and ranks use fully scanned sites only. We could not fully scan 2 sites. They did not respond, blocked the scanner, or sent no page content. They appear in the table without grades, with their scan status, and are left out of every figure. Grades follow the ScanGov grade scale. Rank follows the ScanGov ranking method. The full dataset, with every county's raw results, is in the ScanGov data repository.