Digital accessibility
Making a digital resource accessible means making it usable, understandable and attainable for those with a disability. This applies to documents, presentations, emails, videos, websites and other digital content.
Accessibility ensures a positive user experience for as many people as possible, including anyone who may have:
- impaired vision
- motor difficulties
- cognitive impairments or learning disabilities
- deafness or impaired hearing
Digital accessibility comes in a variety of formats, from ensuring all video content is correctly captioned to choosing colour contrasts that make presentations easy to understand.
Many organisations are now required by law to ensure that their websites meet accessibility regulations and this includes universities. This means, for example, that all images are accompanied by descriptive alternative text and that web page text is clearly formatted with headings and sub-headings.
If you are required to create an online resource such as a blog/website or PowerPoint presentation as part of your coursework, the accessibility of this may not be formally assessed. However, understanding and following accessibility standards will only improve the quality of your work.
Documents & websites
Users with a visual impairment may rely on screen-reading software which speaks aloud any text, including image alternative text, hyperlinked URLs and headings and sub-headings on a page.
When linking from a document or website, you need to ensure that the text for your hyperlink clearly describes the content of the document or page that you are linking to.
For example, this page is clearly going to be about digital accessibility:
https://learning.lincoln.ac.uk/learning-lincoln-your/digital-accessibility/
So, you need to make your link to this page as descriptive as possible:
Please use the Learning at Lincoln Digital accessibility guide.
Try to avoid:
Click here for the Learning at Lincoln Digital accessibility guide.
Alternative text (alt-text) is a visual description of an image, diagram, or table which is used by a screen-reader or replaces the object if the browser is unable to display it. Unlike a caption, this description should not provide additional information – it should convey the meaning of the image for anyone unable to see it. All images featured on websites should have suitable alt-text, which should ideally be kept brief.
It is also best practice to avoid using images that contain text, as screen-readers will not be able to recognise this. If you are to use images that contain textual or numerical information, like charts or graphs, consider accompanying them with short summaries.
Top tips for Alt-text:
- Alt-text should not contain image names or file extensions.
- Do not begin with ‘picture of/image of’ unless the format is particularly relevant to the meaning, i.e. sketch, diagram, photograph, etc.
- Alt-text should end with a full stop. This ensures that screen-readers pause before reading the following sentence.
When formatting a document or web page, consider the hierarchy of the content contained, as screen-readers use this to navigate the information.
Creating a structure where headings and subheadings are organised properly will make it easier for a user to understand your page and jump to the content they are looking for.
For example:
H1 (Main heading)
Paragraph (Body text)
H2 (sub-heading of H1)
Paragraph (Body text)
H3 (Sub-heading of H2)
Paragraph (Body text)
H2 (sub-heading of H1)
A screen-reader will first search a page for a main heading tag (H1), which will usually be the title of the page or document. Then it will search for any secondary headings (H2) to identify the main sections of the document or page.
This way anyone using a screen-reader can quickly scan through the main sections when looking for specific information. If sections are broken up further, the page hierarchy of H3 and H4 tags will show where these sub-sections begin and end.
Creating accessible vidoes
Platforms like YouTube and Vimeo will provide auto-generated closed captions, which is useful when publishing video content, but be sure to check the generated captions to ensure that they are correct and accurate.
Effective use of colour
Further detail can be found on the video below.