Digital Collegium: accessibility resources

The ADA Title II deadline is quickly approaching on April 24! The regulations require all public entities to meet new standards for digital accessibility regarding their websites and online documents. Digital Collegium provides the following actionable tips to help you tackle this work:

• Learn the law—Coppin State University gives a meaningful overview of digital accessibility and how it impacts higher education.
• Create a plan—University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill developed a 3-step digital accessibility compliance plan.
• Build your skills—The University of Minnesota identified 7 core accessibility skills and the 3Rs framework to prioritize your accessibility work.

You can find additional resources, such as guides, in-person experts, and recommended accessibility tools, on the Digital Collegium website.

Digital accessibility highlight: Links

As we work on ensuring all of ASR is compliant with Title II requirements, we will be highlighting the 7 Core Accessibility Skills that are important for everyone to learn.

Links are a fundamental part of digital content. Improving the usability and accessibility of links is beneficial to everyone. The most impactful practice is to embed links within meaningful text. This helps screen readers and provides the user with more information about the link. Avoid link text such as “click here,” “read more,” or “info” because it does not tell a reader anything about the destination of the link.

You can learn more about the importance of links, how to use them appropriately, and watch a screen reader demonstration on the ODA website.

Digital accessibility highlight: Headings

As we work on ensuring all of ASR is compliant with Title II requirements, we will be highlighting the 7 Core Accessibility Skills that are important for everyone to learn.

Headings are useful for any written material. They help to organize and structure the content, making it easier to read. When it comes to digital content, it’s important that the headings not only visually look good, but also are properly formatted using styles and following a hierarchy. This hierarchy identifies headers for assistive technologies and allows users to skim and locate content in an accessible way. Google docs have built-in tools to apply these styles and make them visually appealing as well.

There are accessibility evaluation tools, including Pope Tech (for websites) and GrackleDocs (for Google docs), that can help you check if headings are being used correctly. You can learn more about the importance of headings, how to use them appropriately, and watch a video of someone using a screen reader to navigate with headings on the ODA website.

Digital accessibility highlight: Contrast

As we work on ensuring all of ASR is compliant with Title II requirements, we will be highlighting the 7 Core Accessibility Skills that are important for everyone to learn.

Color plays an important role in presenting information. What may first come to mind is creating data charts, but this also applies to icons, buttons, and error messages. It is a very powerful part of visual communication, but it needs to be used appropriately so that it is effective and accessible. In short, the foreground (including text) and background must have a minimum amount of contrast (the amount depends on the size) to meet accessibility standards. Color should also not be the only way that information is conveyed (for example: color plus shape or color plus words). This is important with those who have low vision or colorblindness, but also situationally such as looking at a phone screen in bright light or with an older computer monitor.

If you would like to check contrast for Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides you can use GrackleDocs. You can learn more about the importance of contrast and find some contrast checkers on the Office for Digital Accessibility (ODA) website.