Web Strategy and Development Blog

Recap: Web Accessibility Summit

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Web and new media staff attended the inaugural Web Accessibility Summit last month. The conference focused on website accessibility for professionals in higher education.

Key takeaways

Universal design considers the needs of a diverse human population. We must consider these needs during every step of the project. From backbone (code) to the voice (content). It’s much easier and less expensive to design for accessibility from the beginning.

Poor heading structure and lack of video captioning trigger the most user complaints.

Alt text reminder: Context matters. Ask yourself why the image is on the page. You’ll write better alt text that way. 

An OCR (Office for Civil Rights) complaint is not a lawsuit; it’s an opportunity to resolve a complaint. Open communication between legal counsel and the OCR is key.

  • Users can request accessible document alternatives. We have five business days to provide one.
  • We should remove old/outdated, inaccessible documents from the web. We actually risk more complaints and legal issues by keeping them on your site.

Crafting strong content is as much a vital part of good accessibility as anything else.

The W3C WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices document offers examples for creating accessible widgets.

An accessible modal dialog must: 

  • Show independence from the rest of the page,
  • Trap keyboard focus within the modal only, and
  • Be closeable via a button and the escape key.

The mission of higher education and accessibility are hand-in-hand. We are making education and information usable for all people. Being passionate about one is being passionate about the other.  

Slides

The Web Accessibility Summit schedule links to the session slides.

Recap: Web Accessibility Clinic

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Brian Heaton and Kristeena Laroue recently conducted a Web Accessibility Clinic. It was a comprehensive training session for identifying and correcting common accessibility issues with websites, including a screen reader demonstration.

Access the presentation

Key takeaways

Headings

  • Headings are an outline of your content.
  • Do not select heading level based on resulting visual presentation style.
  • Page title is heading level 1 (h1); first heading in your content will be h2; subtopic will be h3; etc.
  • Do not use bold paragraph for heading.
  • Avoid centering headings.
  • Headings should make sense out of context.
  • Headings divide your content into consumable sections.

Alternative text for non-text content

  • Provide alternate (alt) text for non-text content.
    • Images, including poster/flyer images (infographics).
    • Alt text should convey in text whatever meaning is conveyed by the image/flyer.
      • If the image has a lot of information, charts, diagrams, etc., the alt text should contain 1) a short description conveying the essential information presented by the image, and 2) a long description following the image or on another page.
        Bar chart displaying cost comparisons as detailed in the following paragraphs.

Link text (descriptions)

  • Very critical to the page containing the link and the destination page.
  • Links should make sense out of context.
  • Do not use meaningless or incomplete text like click here, learn more, download, etc.
  • Do not use URLs for link text.
  • Optimal link text is typically 2-6 words.
  • Each unique destination should have unique link text.

Content structure

  • Use paragraphs, unordered and ordered lists appropriately.
  • Write for your target audience.
  • Do not use a heading or bolded paragraph for announcement or notice. Use “Intro” or “Notice” markup instead.
  • Do not add blank paragraphs to generate separating space.
  • Do not create manual lists (e.g., starting lines with a hyphen).
  • Do not bold or italicize entire paragraphs, even one-line paragraphs. Treat just the important words.
  • Do not use all capital letters.
  • Avoid centering content.
  • The template is spacious by design; do not try to circumvent vertical spacing.

Tables

  • Used for presenting organized data.
  • Never use for layout (e.g., two columns).
  • Should always have headers (th). No need to bold or specify header as a heading style.
  • Do not combine multiple tables into one with embedded description row preceding each table.
  • Precede with descriptive heading, paragraph or include a table caption.

Screen readers

The screen reader demonstration showed typical page navigation and how page headings and links are frequently processed in a list. This emphasized how lists are consumed without benefit of the surrounding context, highlighting the importance of clear and complete heading and link text.

Hear your site on a screen reader

The testing center, located in Meyer Library Lower Level, room 010, has screen reader software installed and will have limited availability during the summer, with advance reservation. Please contact the testing center to make an appointment.

More assistance

Future sessions

Early in the fall and spring semesters a weekly open lab session will be focused on web accessibility where you can get one-on-one assistance with identifying and fixing accessibility issues on your website.

  • Friday, September 7, 2018, 2 – 4 p.m. Cheek 100
  • Friday, February 1, 2019, 2 – 4 p.m. Cheek 100

Web Press open lab relocated for summer 2018

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The Web Press open lab held every Friday has been relocated to the office of web and new media in Meyer Alumni Center suite 601 through Friday, August 10, 2018.

The regularly scheduled time of 2-4 p.m. remains in effect.

More information

Please contact the web help desk at 417-836-5271, weekday afternoons, or webpress@missouristate.edu if you have any questions.

Tune up your website on May 17

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When: 9 a.m.-noon Thursday, May 17
Where: Meyer Library room 106
Training: 9:30 a.m.

At 9:30 a.m. Brian Heaton and Kristeena Laroue will present a brief training session. Brian will cover the top five website accessibility issues. Kristeena will demonstrate access technology, so you can better understand how your website may be used.

After the session, you can grab a computer, discover accessibility issues and make corrections. Everyone that improves their website will be eligible to win a prize. The grand prize is free registration and travel to the Web Accessibility Summit in Columbia, Missouri, on May 30.

So stop in, have some coffee, fix some errors and help us celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

Free bonus

We will also give you some tips to make your website more search engine friendly, so your pages appear more frequently in search results.

Web Press training schedule for summer 2018 announced

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The summer 2018 Web Press training schedule has been released.

In-person session

The summer in-person session will be held at the following time:

  • Tuesday, June 12, 2018 – 2:00-4:00 p.m., Cheek 100

Advance registration is required.

Self-guided training

Self-guided training modules are available at any time. In-person assistance is available during weekly open lab sessions held every Friday 2:00 – 4:00. Telephone and email support is available weekday afternoons 1:00 – 5:00 at 417-836-5271 and webpress@missouristate.edu.