Digital Accessibility Guidelines

Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, colleges and universities are obligated to provide students with disabilities equal and integrated access to higher education. Section 508 requires federal agencies and their contractors to make electronic resources and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice updated regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, enforcing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA as the standard for meeting the Section 508 requirement. Because Westminster University receives federal financial aid for students, the institution is required to follow these laws.

To follow these important laws that support digital accessibility, all of Westminster University's digital content (e.g., emails, website content, PDFs, online courses) must be accessible to the widest possible audience, including those who use assistive technology (e.g., a screen reader or keyboard navigation) to consume digital information. Creating accessible digital content does not require skills in coding. The guidelines below sum up the simplest ways you can ensure Westminster is providing accessible content to our community. Accessibility best practices benefit everyone, regardless of ability. However, following these guidelines will specifically benefit users who are hard-of-hearing, deaf, low-vision, colorblind, blind, or have limited mobility.

Headings

Screen readers announce headings first, in order, and identify the heading level. Headings allow users to jump to sections in documents, emails, and websites. Example: h1 headings are used for page titles on websites and read before any other headings on the webpage.

  • Use descriptive headings to separate content by topic.
  • Use headings in order of h1, h2, h3... without skipping a level.
  • There should be only one h1 heading in a document/webpage, at the beginning of the document/webpage (the title)
  • Use the heading styles available in Microsoft Word or in an HTML editor to set heading levels. Merely increasing font size or bolding text does not make headings accessible.
  • To differentiate text from headings, use HTML paragraph tags when creating email or website content.

Links

Screen readers read the linked text before the unlinked text to allow users to skip to relevant content, and they read only the text that is linked. Because of this, a user will hear only "here" or "https://www.westminsteru.edu/academics/registrars-office/example/"; if that is the text you have linked.

  • Link descriptive text instead of "click here,""this website," or the full URL. For example: Westminster's Art program provides many avenues for artistic exploration.
  • When creating a URL, including uploading files, use dashes or underscores in the filename instead of spaces so screen readers don't read them as broken links.

Font Size and Style

  • Use a readable font, not a decorative font or a font with similar-looking characters.
  • Users should be able to adjust the font size and style.
  • Use a 14-point font size for paragraph text and incrementally increase the size from there for each level of headings.
    • Example: h1 headings set to 24-point font and h2 headings set to 20-point font.
  • Avoid making long sections of text entirely bold, italicized, or styled in atypical ways.
  • Avoid using all capital letters for words, sentences, or paragraphs. When in all caps, every letter is the same height, making words a rectangular shape, making letter differentiation difficult.

Tables

Tables require special effort to be accessible to screen readers in particular. A correctly formatted table will have the screen reader read column and row headings, if applicable, before reading other cells with supporting information.

  • Convey complicated information as lists instead of tables.
  • Follow WCAG table rules when creating a table in HTML (e.g., email, website).
  • To create an accessible table in Microsoft Word:
    • Designate a row as a header:
      • Select (highlight) the entire row, then right-click and select Table Properties.
      • Select the Row tab, and check Repeat as header row at the top of each page.
      • Be sure "Allow row to break across pages" is unchecked.
    • While setting a header row, check/set your table's alt title and description:
      • Select the Alt Text tab.
      • Make sure the alt title and description fields are clear, descriptive, and concise.
    • Once your header row and alt text info are ready, choose OK.

Text Formatting

  • When pasting text from another source, strip all formatting from the text and use the built-in tools where you paste it to apply formatting (e.g., bulleted lists, headings).
  • Screen readers may or may not read punctuation, depending on the user's settings. In either case, ensure that punctuation helps convey your intended meaning.
  • Screen readers pause for:
    • Periods
    • Semi-colons
    • Commas
    • Question marks
    • Exclamation points
    • Paragraph endings

Readability

Following readability guidelines makes it easier for everyone, regardless of education level, to skim, read quickly, and understand the text on a screen.

  • Write content at an 8th-grade reading level, which free readability score tools can help check.
  • Write clear, concise sentences and short paragraphs.
  • Do not use acronyms that are uncommon to the general public or have more than one meaning. Screen readers, in particular, try to pronounce acronyms if there are sufficient vowels and consonants to be pronounceable. Otherwise, they spell out the letters. For example, the pronunciation of NASA is a word, the pronunciation of SQL is "sequel," and the pronunciation of NSF is "N.S.F."

Color

  • Use high-contrast color combinations.
  • Do not use color to convey meaning. Use lists with headings or use patterns or shapes to differentiate information.
  • Add mouse-over labels to shapes in charts and infographics.

Images

Screen readers read image alternative text (or alt text), preceded by the word "graphic."; If there is no alt text, the screen reader will ignore an image or read the file name if the user has set it to do so. If an image without alt text is a link, screen readers will generally read the link destination, preceded by the words "graphic link."

If an image is used to convey ideas but does not have alt text, a screen reader will not provide that information to a user. Typing text as text is the easiest way to make sure a screen reader can read all information to a user.

  • Do not put text inside an image and avoid charts and graphs unless you add the text near the image or as alt text.
  • Add alt text to images to describe what is in the image (e.g., two students sitting in the grass on campus and laughing together).
  • Do not use images as links to additional information; link descriptive text.

Audio and Video

Video accessibility can be as easy as selecting the auto-captioning option when uploading files to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, etc.

  • Provide sign language interpretation when live streaming video.
  • Provide captions on live and pre-recorded videos. Use Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services when you can.
  • Provide audio transcriptions of text.
  • Provide audio descriptions to share visual information.
  • Avoid fast-moving or flickering video.

Keyboard Navigation

Forms

Screen readers inform users when they have entered a form. Users then have the option to enter form navigation mode.

Digital Accessibility Resources

Staff can request access to view slides from the 2021 Staff Retreat session "Everyday Accessibility at Westminster."

Instructional Design

Websites

  • WebAIM provides training and resources for creating accessible websites, including a browser plug-in called WAVE that scans webpages for accessibility.
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the universal standard for web accessibility and fulfills ADA Section 508 requirements. Westminster is required to comply with at least WCAG 2.1 AA standards. The Westminster web team goes through training to comply with these standards.

Documents, Slides, and Spreadsheets

Accessibility in Adobe Products

Adobe Acrobat can scan PDFs for accessibility issues and offers instructions on how to fix the issues it finds. For best results, create your document using accessibility best practices in Word, PowerPoint, or InDesign first and then export it as a PDF.

Accessibility in Microsoft Products

Microsoft provides information about how to make your Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations accessible when using Microsoft desktop applications or Microsoft Office Online:

In addition to these Microsoft guides, WebAIM offers Word and PowerPoint accessibility resources and a document accessibility training course.

Internal Accessibility Support

Direct your accessibility questions to the Westminster University web team through a web request or to Disability Services at disabilityservices@westminsteru.edu.

For help accessing Microsoft and Adobe products for free through the university, open an IS help desk ticket.