Showing Massachusetts research university sites. All education sites
R1 and R2 universities in Massachusetts, public and private together.
A 94
Average accessibility score of 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites
4th
of 17 states, ranked by average accessibility score
12 of 12
Massachusetts research university sites fully scanned
A 91
Average accessibility score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites
How Massachusetts accessibility scores are distributed
Smoothed distribution of the 12 fully scanned Massachusetts research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.
Distribution of 12 scores. The data table lists counts by score range.
- Massachusetts 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 | 2 |
| 90 to 100 | 10 |
Massachusetts research universities by accessibility grade, compared with all education sites
Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Massachusetts research universities: 12 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 83% (10) | 17% (2) | 0% (0) |
| All education sites | 66% (1,765) | 33% (888) | 1% (34) |
Top 3 Massachusetts research university sites by accessibility score
#1 in Massachusetts · U.S. education rank 1
Clark University
A 100 accessibility
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security B
- Usability B
- Readability F
#1 in Massachusetts · U.S. education rank 1
Northeastern University
A 100 accessibility
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability A
#1 in Massachusetts · U.S. education rank 1
University of Massachusetts-Boston
A 100 accessibility
- Accessibility A
- Botability A
- Security A
- Usability B
- Readability A
What each check means
- 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.
- 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.
- Buttons have an accessible name. Buttons have labels so screen readers can describe their action. Screen reader users cannot identify or interact with elements.
- [aria-hidden="true"] elements do not contain focusable descendents. Interactive elements are not hidden from screen reader users. Keyboard users can focus elements that screen readers cannot announce.
Research universities in Massachusetts by accessibility score
| Rank | Site | Checks passed | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
clarku.edu
Clark University U.S. rank 1 |
33 of 33 checks pass | A |
| 1 |
northeastern.edu
Northeastern University U.S. rank 1 |
36 of 36 checks pass | A |
| 1 |
umb.edu
University of Massachusetts-Boston U.S. rank 1 |
31 of 31 checks pass | A |
| 1 |
umassd.edu
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth U.S. rank 1 |
31 of 31 checks pass | A |
| 1 |
wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute U.S. rank 1 |
28 of 28 checks pass | A |
| 2 |
tufts.edu
Tufts University U.S. rank 3 |
29 of 30 checks pass | A |
| 2 |
umass.edu
University of Massachusetts-Amherst U.S. rank 3 |
29 of 30 checks pass | A |
| 3 |
harvard.edu
Harvard University U.S. rank 6 |
28 of 30 checks pass | A |
| 3 |
web.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. rank 6 |
27 of 29 checks pass | A |
| 4 |
uml.edu
University of Massachusetts-Lowell U.S. rank 9 |
27 of 30 checks pass | A |
| 5 |
bu.edu
Boston University U.S. rank 16 |
25 of 30 checks pass | B |
| 6 |
bc.edu
Boston College U.S. rank 17 |
28 of 34 checks pass | B |
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. 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.