Resources

Standards

International web accessibility standards are developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The current recommended guidelines are:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1  – replaced WCAG 2.0 in June 2018
  • Level AA is the industry standard

Additional Guidance

Helpful information, tools and guidance can be found on the WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) site, which is a nonprofit organization founded at Utah State University:

• WebAIM

Content Creation

WebAIM has created a one-page Web Accessibility for Designers, which is also helpful for content creators and editors.

The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) offers several one-page cheatsheets on creating accessible content. These may be a good place to start.

Visit past presentations from the WashU Web Accessibility Users Group for more helpful information regarding electronic accessibility.

WordPress

For information on how to create accessible WordPress content, visit:

• Creating Accessible Content for WordPress (PowerPoint) (by WashU Web Accessibility Users Group, Feb. 2018)
• Links and Hypertext (by WebAIM)
• Alternative Text (by WebAIM)
• Creating Accessible Tables (by WebAIM)

Documents

Create accessible documents in the following formats:

• Word
• PowerPoint
• Excel
• InDesign
• Additional steps must be taken to create accessible PDFs:
  • Use Microsoft Office products to create accessible PDFs (from Microsoft)
  • Best practices for Adobe PDF accessibility (PDF) – this is a long, detailed document; helpful for complex PDFs
  • Create Accessible Word docs and their PDFs (PDF) (WashU Web Accessibility Users Group)

Video and Audio

Create accessible video and audio:

• Making Accessible Podcasts
• Captioning, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions (by WebAIM)
• Captions and Transcripts and Audio Descriptions, Oh My! (by The Paciello Group)

Social Media

Create accessible social media posts:

• Facebook Accessibility
  • “Like” the Facebook Accessibility page (@accessibility)
    Follow @fbaccess on Twitter
• Instagram
  • Instagram Alt Text
  • Instagram Captions
• Twitter Accessibility
  • Follow @TwitterA11y (those are ones in the middle of the name)
  • Search #A11y
• YouTube Captions (National Center on Disability and Access to Education one-page cheatsheet)

Evaluation

Evaluate web accessibility:

• Tools and browser extensions
  • WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (by WebAIM)
  • Siteimprove Accessibility Checker (by Siteimprove)
• Checklists
  • Evaluating Web Accessibility, including Easy Checks (by W3C)
  • Quick Reference and Checklist (by WebAIM)
• Color contrast checkers
  • Color Contrast Checker (by WebAIM)
  • Contrast Checker, particularly helpful in Word documents (by Acart Communications)
  • ColorZilla color picker, eye dropper, and other tools (by iosart labs)
• Screen readers
  • Download the NVDA screen reader for Windows (free! from NV Access). Also available: a free User Guide.
  • VoiceOver is included with Apple OS devices.

Procurement

The VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is a form developed by the ITI (Information Technology Industry Council) that vendors complete and provide to purchasers to report on the accessibility of their digital products. Updated in April 2019, there are four different versions of the VPAT:

• VPAT 2.3 WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) – preferred
• VPAT 2.3 508 (Section 508 standards)
• VPAT 2.3 EU (European Union standards)
• VPAT 2.3 INT (includes all three of the above)

Although the VPAT is an important part of purchasing, manual testing is still needed to fully assess a digital product’s accessibility.