This information is from a blog post that summarizes responses to a 2017 tweet by Safia Abdalla:
Review the full post by Hampus Sethfors: Accessibility according to actual people with disabilities.
Biggest issues identified
- Lack of captions
- Primarily for video.
- Motion, animations and cluttered pages
- Includes auto play videos and auto-advancing slideshows.
- Wall of text
- Long paragraphs and large chunks of text.
- Small font size
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) does not specify a minimum font size requirement.
- Zooming problems
- Sites frequently break when size is increased by user.
- Low contrasts and image of text
- Scan of a page of text saved as PDF produces an image of text.
- Bright color schemes
- White background; can lead to migraines.
- Relying only on color
- Long been a no-no, but still prevalent.
- Mouse-focused sites
- Not usable on touch screens; difficult for users with motor impairments.
- Too small touch-targets
- This is the reason Missouri State University’s 2019 web redesign is so spacious.
- CAPTCHAS
- Keep out a lot more than bots.
What you can do
While some of these items are automatically handled by MSU’s 2019 web templates, you still have an impact on many of of these items.
- Don’t create a wall of text. Keep paragraphs to 2-4 sentences.
- Content styled as Intro format should be brief; one or two short sentences plus 1-3 bullets. Anything longer isn’t introductory content.
- Use headings to make an outline of your content.
- Avoid images of text. When necessary, the alt text should contain all text in the image.
- Don’t use heading markup (e.g., h3, h4) to make an “important” statement; consider a Notice Block instead.
- Don’t use bold or italics for an entire sentence.
- Use meaningful text for links; avoid brief abstract terms like read more or click here.
- For web addresses, write descriptive link text.
Make sure you’re following the style guide.
- In time references, use figures with a.m. and p.m throughout. Omit :00.
- Examples: Summer office hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telephone support is available 2:30-4 p.m. daily.
- In email addresses, capitalize each word. Example: BoomerBear@MissouriState.edu.
- Preferred capitalizations, spelling and usage:
- Phone numbers: use dashes, not periods. Omit parentheses around the area code. 417-836-5000
- Most words beginning with “non” or “post” should be formatted as one word with no hyphen (ex. noncredit, nondegree, nondegree-seeking, postbaccalaureate, postdoctoral, postdoctorate). Post-master’s should be hyphenated.
- Email, not e-mail.
- Use only one space between sentences. Do not use a space at the end of a paragraph or bulleted list item.
- Common Bear terms:
- Bear CLAW
- Bear Line
- BearWear
- BearFare
- BearMail
- BearPass
- Bear Park North (South)
- BoomerMeals
- Bear Breaks
