Palo Alto Global Protect is a VPN software used by the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Get help

• Contact the DoIT Help Desk for general assistance or to report an accessibility or usability barrier.

• For support provided by Palo Alto, see the Palo Alto Customer Support Portal

Additional Resources

• For more information about the WiscVPN and how to troubleshoot, visit the UW-Madison WiscVPN KnowledgeBase. 

• For more information about the functionality of Palo Alto Global Connect, visit the Palo Alto KnowledgeBase.

Accessibility and usability barriers 

The following information is provided to help people with disabilities know what potential barriers may exist within Palo Alto Global Protect.

On PC, Settings Menu in Global Protect VPN is difficult to navigable via keyboard, affecting people with motor disabilities and who are colorblind

On PC, keyboard navigation and color contrast accessibility is impacted by the low contrast focus indicator on the settings menu hamburger.  This makes the menu difficult to navigate to via keyboard, and difficult to identify for someone with low vision or who is colorblind. We are working with the vendor to resolve this issue.

Most of the functionality is reachable via keyboard navigation in Global Protect. However, PC keyboard navigation does not reach the Settings menu to view portal settings and version information. We are working with the vendor to resolve this issue. 

To enable keyboard navigation on Mac OS, go to System Preferences and select Keyboard. Navigate to the Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard modal. Select the keyboard option in the left menu and click the checkbox for the setting "Use keyboard to move focus between controls" located below the list of checkboxes in the gray window in light gray text. Warning: this setting is unfortunately easy to miss but critical for navigating local software using keyboard navigation on a Mac.

For Mac, Global Protect modal close and minimize functions are not keyboard reachable as this functionality is performed via keyboard shortcut in Mac OS. These modals are not part of the main task flow necessary for using the VPN.

Color contrast barriers may be difficult for people with color blindness

Some font colors, links, and symbols within the app have low color contrast and may be difficult for some users to navigate and read if they have low vision or color blindness. One example of the issue of low color contrast is the “enter login credentials” text. Additionally, the “close/minimize/expand” functions are missing icons that would indicate to the user the function of these buttons.