Accessibility : Digital Content Accessibility

ALT text refers to invisible description of images which are read aloud to blind users on a screen reader.

An important aspect of color on the web for both low vision and colorblind users is sufficient contrast between text or graphics and the background.

Captions are mandated primarily for Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, but captions benefit multiple audiences including:non-native speakers, when audio is not clear, and instances when a person cannot listen to audio because of their work or study environment.

Use descriptive link text detailing the destination, not just “click here,” or other ambiguous phrases Link text should be made up of phrases rather than single words, so that users with limited motor control will not have difficulty selecting links.

Headings and subheadings are an important usability and accessibility strategy to help readers both determine the overall outline of the document, and navigate to specific information on the page. Sighted readers can identify heading by visually scanning pages for larger text. Blind users using screen reading software are not able to see the visual formatting, so increasing the font size is not a sufficient cue.

If you plan to use color coding to convey content, you should ensure that there is a second mechanism (e.g. different shapes or text labels) to provide the information to audiences who cannot perceive the color changing including the blind and color deficient users.

WCAG is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.
The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web “content” generally refers to the information in a web page or web application.

Evaluation tools to help make web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and WCAG errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content.

Accessibility Tools and resources from the Association of Research Libraries.