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Celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on May 19

May 16, 2022 by Web Strategy and Development

Missouri State students in computer lab.

The world celebrates digital access and inclusion with Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on the third Thursday of May every year. More than one billion people worldwide have disabilities and impairments. GAAD gets people talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion.

Creating accessible digital content is a must at Missouri State University. We know it can be a lot to think about, so here are some tips to keep in mind. We’ve also included some ways to join in virtually.

Find a GAAD virtual event

#SpotlightAccessibility – Spread positivity around accessibility by highlighting a great feature or product and learn about what others are using.

People with disabilities say these issues come up most often.

  • Videos that are missing captions.
  • Motion, animations and cluttered pages.
  • Auto play videos and auto-advancing slideshows.
  • Walls 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 backgrounds can lead to migraines.
  • Relying only on color: this has long been a no-no, but still prevalent.
  • Mouse-focused sites: not usable on touch screens and difficult for users with motor impairments.
  • Too small touch-targets: thhis is the reason Missouri State University’s 2019 web redesign is so spacious.
  • CAPTCHAS: Keep out a lot more than bots.

Here’s what you can do to make your content more accessible.

While some of these items are automatically handled by MSU’s 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

Resources

Editorial Style Guide

Web Accessibility Clinic

Omni CMS Documentation

Filed Under: Accessibility, Training Tagged With: a11ysummit, Accessibility, conference, gaad

Recap: Accessibility according to actual people with disabilities

August 27, 2021 by Brian Heaton

This information is from a blog post that summarizes responses to a 2017 tweet by Safia Abdalla:

Tweet by Safia Abdalla @captainsafia.

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

Resources

Editorial Style Guide

Web Accessibility Clinic

Web Press Documentation

Filed Under: Accessibility, Training Tagged With: a11ysummit, Accessibility, conference

Learn best practices for accessibility

April 11, 2019 by Brian Heaton

Web Accessibility Summit

Join us for the 2019 Web Accessibility Summit, a conference about all things website accessibility for professionals in higher education and beyond, hosted this year by Missouri State University.

Details

When: May 29, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Missouri State University, Glass Hall
Cost: $40

Workshops and track sessions will focus on how to make your web presence more accessible with technical and non-technical solutions. Networking opportunities will encourage sharing of information and resources with colleagues from around the state.

Missouri State faculty and staff should register through My Learning Connection. You may use your noncredit fee waiver to cover conference registration costs.

Non-MSU faculty and staff can register now.

Seating is limited so don’t delay.

Organizers

Several Missouri higher education institutions are organizing this event:

University of Missouri logo.
St. Louis Community College logo.
Missouri State University logo.
Missouri State University - West Plains logo.
Truman State University logo.
Missouri University of Science and Technology logo.
A.T. Still University logo.
University of Missouri-Kansas City logo.

Filed Under: Accessibility, News, Technical, Training, Web Press, web strategy and development Tagged With: a11ysummit, Accessibility, conference

Recap: Web Accessibility Summit

June 15, 2018 by

Web Accessibility Summit

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.

  • Telling our story
  • Tailoring web content
  • Creating social media content

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.

Filed Under: Accessibility, Training Tagged With: a11ysummit, Accessibility, conference

Learn accessibility best practices

April 13, 2018 by

Web Accessibility Summit

Join us for the first Web Accessibility Summit, a conference about all things website accessibility for professionals in higher education and beyond.

Details

When: May 30, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: University of Missouri, Columbia
Cost: $25

Workshops and track sessions will focus on how to make your web presence more accessible with technical and non-technical solutions. Networking opportunities will encourage sharing of information and resources with colleagues from around the state.

Register today

Seating is limited. On-campus lodging is available.

Organizers

Several Missouri higher education institutions are organizing this event:

St. Louis Community College logo.
Truman State University logo.
Missouri University of Science and Technology logo.
Missouri State University - West Plains logo.
Missouri State University logo.
University of Missouri logo.

Filed Under: Accessibility, Training Tagged With: a11ysummit, Accessibility, conference

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