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Web Strategy Documentation Library

Required footer elements for UW websites

When building a website or webpage for the University of Washington, the footer must include specific elements to comply with established university privacy and security policies, and forthcoming accessibility policies. There are two required elements: the copyright statement and required links. Below we provide both the elements and code examples for including the elements on your website.

Note: If you are using the UW WordPress theme, UW Drupal theme, or one of our accessible templates, these elements are already included in the footer for the Seattle Campus. If you create a child theme or modify templates, do not remove or alter these required elements if your unit or department is located on the Seattle Campus.

Copyright statement

At a minimum, include the copyright mark, the current year, and “University of Washington” in a prominent location within the footer of your website. Your campus or institution may require you to add additional verbiage to the copyright statement.

For example, to include the minimum copyright statement, copy the following code:

<p>&copy; 2026 University of Washington</p>

which will produce this result:

© 2026 University of Washington

Required links

The footer must include required links that point to specific destinations for compliance with university policies. While the Web Strategy team recommends to place these links in an unordered list displayed horizontally below the copyright statement, the website builder is free to place them in any style that fits the design of their site but in a location that is easily identified by the end user and meets all accessibility requirements. The following are the required links and their destinations:

Note, your campus or institution may have specific links for accessibility, contact pages, etc. Please check with your campus’ web team for more specific links.

Code snippet

Here is an example HTML and CSS snippet you can copy and paste into your website to get the copyright statement and required links:


<style>
	footer{
		padding:1em;
		text-align:center;
	}
	.footer-links{
		list-style:none;
		padding:0;
		margin:0;
		display:flex;
		justify-content:center;
		gap:1em;
	}
	.footer-links li{
		display:inline;
	}
</style>
<footer role="contentinfo" aria-label="University of Washington site footer">
	<p>&copy; 2026 University of Washington</p>
	<ul class="footer-links">
		<li><a href="https://www.washington.edu/accessibility/">Accessibility</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://www.washington.edu/contact/">Contact Us</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://www.washington.edu/rules/wac/">Rules Docket</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://www.washington.edu/online/privacy/">Privacy</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://www.washington.edu/online/terms/">Terms</a></li>
	</ul>
<footer>

which will produce the following output: