May Web Tip: Accessibility
Reminders
We have
had questions over the past month with regards to a couple of accessibility
topics. Here are some friendly reminders and quick links for some issues
that impact accessibility the most.
- Image "Alt-text" Requirements:
When using images, there must always be descriptive and logical
"alt-text" that describes the image content and/or context. If there is
text on the image - ALL text must be included in the alt-text. Here is an article with more detailed
information on alt-text.
Added bonus: if
possible, using the page's primary keywords in your image's alt-text can
help boost the page's rankings in search (like Google, Bing, etc.).
- Hierarchical Headings:
Headings
help organize the page's content, so headings can be used to support one
another, or to separate sections altogether. Page titles are set to
heading 1 by default. Therefore, the next heading used must be heading 2,
then can proceed to heading 3. Heading 2 can be used after another heading
2, however a heading 3 before a heading 2 would fail accessibility and
legal requirements, as screen readers follow the sequential order. Here is an article that includes helpful
information and visual examples of correct heading implementations.
- PDF Accessibility:
For documents,
please ensure that the text is accessible. Screen readers will not read
images of text, so please make sure the PDF is optimized and accessible for
screen readers. Here is a site that covers PDF
accessibility.
When
submitting workflows - please keep in mind that technical review is the
final step in the approval process. If there are accessibility issues found
during technical review, and these topics are the most likely of culprits,
the workflow will be returned to you for correction. Here is centralized documentation that we
use in the formal Cascade training as well.
If you
have any questions please let us know via our online web request form:
https://www.sandiego.edu/web-request/
Thank you,
University Web Services
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