Silktide is a website testing platform that works by scanning publicly available website content and checking it against certain criteria. MSU has purchased Silktide for the primary purpose of checking university websites for digital accessibility. The platform includes other useful tools such as a spell checker and broken link checker.
This page covers how to access Silktide, how to get started with learning to use the platform, and other features and parameters for MSU Silktide users.
Users can log in to Silktide with their MSU Net ID and password. The system uses single sign-on.
The Digital Accessibility Team can grant access to Silktide. Please contact Dennis Bond to request access. Silktide users will have access to all websites in their college or unit that are currently loaded into the system.
Silktide access is suggested for unit digital accessibility liaisons, website editors and developers, and communications staff.
Sliktide Academy contains videos and articles about how to use the platform and about digital accessibility topics.
Silktide beginners should plan to complete the "Getting started with Silktide" course (21 minutes). Navigate to "Academy" in the top menu, then "Courses" in the sub menu to find this course.
Initial website scans are limited to 500 pages for colleges and 50 pages for non-college sites. This number can be expanded if a unit can show that they have attempted to remediate any systemic issues in good faith and are working to add communicators or website editors to the system.
If any websites are missing, or if you see sites that don’t "belong" to your MAU, please let us know. This includes sites that may be joint with another unit. We can also fix website titles if needed.
For basic system use, click a website and then click “Accessibility” and “Checks.” Drill into any check to learn more about it. Click “View in the inspector” to see an issue on the web page or in the code. Note that the list of checks will need to be filtered for WCAG Level A and AA specifically. Also note that WCAG 2.2 checks are on a separate page in the “Accessibility“ section.
The Accessibility section of a selected website includes the following features:
A custom dashboard called Websites List presents data on WCAG 2.2 Level A and Level AA compliance for all websites associated with a unit. The data can be filtered by a specific website or websites, or by tags associated with specific content management systems (Sitecore, for example). Navigate to “Dashboards” in the top menu to access this dashboard.
Silktide also has a free browser extension available on Chrome and Edge. This toolbar is available to everyone, even those without a Silktide account. This checker "tests any web page for over 200 WCAG issues, and gives straightforward, step-by-step guidance on how to improve web accessibility."
Please note that Google Chrome extensions cannot be installed while signed in to the browser with an MSU Google account. The Silktide toolbar can be installed in a Chrome profile that is not logged into an MSU account.
Metrics generated by Silktide are available on the Accessibility Dashboard. A Silktide Accessibility Score is included and presented alongside the university average. The score can be filtered by each individual website belonging to the unit. The score is based on WCAG 2.2 Level AA.