DubBot

Web editors can use DubBot to find and fix accessibility issues on their websites. MU Digital Service manages this tool and provides training. This guide is designed to supplement your training to help you navigate DubBot and enhance the accessibility of the website(s) you support.

Getting Started in DubBot

  1. Log In: Go to the UM System DubBot portal, umsystem.dubbot.com
  2. First-Time Access: Set up your password. After that, you can log in using Single Sign-On.
  3. Request Access: If you need access to your website, contact Digital Service.

Dashboard Overview

When you log in, you’ll see the DubBot dashboard. If you manage multiple sites, choose the site you want to check.

The dashboard has several features, including:

  • Overall Accessibility Score: View the accessibility score of your site.
  • Last Crawled: See when DubBot last scanned your site. By default, this happens weekly. To request a manual scan, contact Shervin Mansouri (smzc3@missouri.edu).
  • PDFs: This tile will likely report zero PDFs on your site, though this most likely is not the case. To view PDFs that are on your site, follow these steps:
    • Navigate to the “Quick Wins” section on the dashboard.
    • In the dropdown menu, select “Pages with Informational Searches.”
    • To the right of the dropdown menu is a filter option to view “Linked PDFs/Documents” and/or “Embedded Videos iFrame Detector.” Your results will depend on if this media exists on your site.

Now, the menu will display the URL of pages with linked PDFs and videos.

Working in the Four Focus Areas

On the dashboard, you’ll find tiles for:

  • Accessibility
  • Broken Links
  • Web Governance
  • Best Practices
  • Spell Check (not critical)
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (not critical)

Accessibility: This tile lists the issues on your site that do not meet accessibility requirements, such as color contrast ratios.

  1. Click the number of issues found. You’ll be taken to a page that tells you the number of errors on the site and the affected pages. You’ll see four columns: Description, Success Criteria, Affected Pages and Action.
  2. Click the number of affected pages to see the specific issue and each affected URL.
  3. Click the URL to see the page in question. The toolbar on the left side of the page provides a summary of the issue and the specific content on the page that is non-compliant. The main (right) view of this page shows a preview of the page. Using the “View” dropdown menu in the top right corner of the page, the page can be previewed in full HTML, the source code, text only or words only.
  4. To correct the issue, open the content management system for the website and make the necessary updates.
  5. Once the issue is corrected, go back to DubBot and click the “Refresh Content” button on the top right-hand side. After a moment, the preview will refresh. If the issue has successfully been resolved for the page, it will no longer be included on the Accessibility dashboard.
  6. Repeat steps 2-5 until all accessibility issues are resolved.

Broken Links: This tile shows the number of broken or unresponsive links on your site.

  1. Click the number of issues found. The URL column tells you the link that is broken or unresponsive. The Pages column tells you the number of pages that include a link to that page.
  2. Click on the number of pages.
  3. Click on the URL on the left to open the dashboard that shows the page of your website that includes the broken link.
  4. To fix it, open the content management system for the website and make the necessary updates to update or remove the broken link. Note: In some cases, DubBot will mark a link as broken if the destination URL loads slowly. On the Broken Links dashboard, select the three dots in the “Actions” column to either ignore or resolve the issue for the site.
  5. Once the issue is corrected, go back to the DubBot page and click the “Refresh Content” button on the top right-hand side. After a moment, the preview will refresh. If the issue has successfully been resolved for the page, it will no longer be included on the Broken Links dashboard.
  6. Repeat steps 2-5 until all broken links are fixed.

Web Governance: This tile shows the number of issues such as missing or non-descriptive alternative text on images, non-descriptive link text or issues with tables.

  1. Click the number of issues found. The Description column tells you the accessibility issue.
  2. Click on the number of pages for each issue to open the dashboard. Then, you’ll see the list of pages with the particular issue.
  3. Click on a URL to open the dashboard, where you will see a preview of the page on the right and a detailed description of the issue on the left.
  4. To correct the issue, open the content management system for the website and make the necessary updates to address the issue.
  5. Once the issue is corrected, go back to the DubBot page and click the “Refresh Content” button on the top right-hand side. After a moment, the preview will refresh. If the issue has successfully been resolved for the page, it will no longer be included on the Web Governance dashboard.
  6. Repeat steps 2-5 until all web governance issues are resolved.

Best Practices: This tile shows the number of issues that should be corrected to meet best practice recommendations, such as page headers that are out of sequential order on a page (H1, H2, H3, etc.).

  1. Click on the number of pages for each issue to open the dashboard. Then, you’ll see the list of pages with the particular issue.
  2. Click on a URL to open the dashboard, where you will see a preview of the page on the right and a detailed description of the issue on the left.
  3. To correct the issue, open the content management system for the website and make the necessary updates to address the issue.
  4. Once the issue is corrected, go back to the DubBot page and click the “Refresh Content” button on the top right-hand side. After a moment, the preview will refresh. If the issue has successfully been resolved for the page, it will no longer be included on the Best Practices dashboard.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4 until all best practices are addressed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What about the Spell Check and SEO tiles?

A. As we work to achieve digital accessibility by April 24, 2026, it’s important to focus our attention on the four tiles (Accessibility, Broken Links, Web Governance and Best Practices) that will have the biggest impact in achieving accessibility. The Spell Check and SEO issues identified in DubBot can be worked on as time allows but prioritize the other four tiles.

Q. When will I know I’m done?

A. Digital accessibility will be ongoing and will be part of our university culture well beyond April 24, 2026. In DubBot, you should continue to remediate any issues until all four primary tiles (Accessibility, Broken Links, Web Governance and Best Practices) have been addressed. As you continue to create and edit content, use the skills you’ve learned to maintain your site’s accessibility.

Q. DubBot is flagging issues that I can’t resolve. What should I do?

A. DubBot may identify issues that are outside of your control as a web content editor, such as template-level issues and conflicts between the site title and the page title. If there is an issue you cannot remediate or resolve, contact MU Digital Service at  https://mizzou.us/dsrequest.

Helpful Tips

  • Try to set aside time each week to make small, incremental changes. The main DubBot dashboard has a section called “Quick Wins.” Scroll down past the site overview to see the section. You can use the dropdown menu to see which category the issue falls in. Keep in mind that our focus should be on issues categorized as Accessibility, Broken Links, Web Governance and Best Practices. Tackle these issues before addressing Spell Check or SEO issues.
  • If possible, use two monitors when working in DubBot. Use one monitor to navigate within DubBot and a second monitor to make edits in your site’s content management system. This will make it easier to keep track of your progress.
  • Refreshing the content in DubBot will quickly let you know if your issue has been resolved. However, this update depends on how quickly your CMS makes the changes and how quickly the page cache refreshes. For some edits, it may take a day for changes to reflect in DubBot, so check back often.
  • Instead of navigating to the individual tiles (Accessibility, Broken Links, Web Governance, Best Practices, etc.), if you click on a particular URL with multiple issues, you can use the DubBot dashboard to toggle between each issue.