Designing Accessible Content

What do you think about when you think of the word "accessibility"?

Why accessibility?

  • It's the law!
    • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
    • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
    • Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act
    • Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
  • Also, it's just the right thing to do.

Accessibility Is Not (Just)

  • Captions on videos
  • Alt tags on images
  • A compliance exercise
  • Optional
  • For some.

Accessibility Is

  • About removing barriers.
  • About equity.
  • About providing high-quality learning experiences for all.
  • About providing all students with the supports they need.
Accessibility: the purposeful design of a technology tool to meet the individualized needs of each person who is using it.

Accessibility Best Practices

UK Accessibility Office Guidelines

What inaccessible sites are like...

Videos

  • Caption all content, including background noise.
  • Machine-generated captions are good, Human-generated captions are preferred.
  • Ensure that all visuals used in a presentation are made available in an accessible format.

Fonts

  • Use the minimum number of easily readable fonts.
  • 12-point minimum font size in documents.
  • 14-point minimum font on websites.
  • 18-point font recommended on slides.
  • Ensure adequate contrast between background color and text color.

Images

  • All images require alternative text unless decorative.
  • Alt-text should be descriptive of the content of the image and not the image itself.
  • Do not solely use color to convey meaning.
  • Minimize the amount of text in images and do not use image text-blocks.
  • Keep image file sizes as small as possible.
  • Ensure sufficient contrast in images and charts.

Headings

  • Properly nest headings.
  • Web pages must have at least one Level One heading.

Hyperlinks

  • Use descriptive link text.
  • Ensure links are long enough that the tap target is sufficiently large.
  • Inform users when a link will open in a new tab.

Tables

  • Properly label table header rows and columns.

Microsoft Word and Google Drive

  • Use semantic styling.
  • Leverage the built-in accessibility checker or the Grackle Docs extension.
  • Leverage the voice typing and Immersive Reader tools to support users.

PDF Files

  • PDFs are among the most inaccessible documents.
  • Images scanned to PDF are not accessible.
  • Best practice is to generate your document in Word and save to PDF.

Websites

  • Use semantic styling.
  • Use the WAVE extension to validate WCAG-2.1-AA compatibility.
  • Ensure keyboard navigation and adequate contrast between elements.
  • Review the VPAT for 3rd party tools.

Questions?