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Accessibility

Web accessibility has many components. Legally, the most pertinent legislation is the following:

A set of guidelines was created to meet the requirements set down by these laws.

Web Content Accessibility

Hyperlink Tables – Tables should have a summary, have properly labeled header cells, association between data cells and header cells. See Data Tables Accessibility.

Guidelines (now on version 2.0 and usually referred to as WCAG)

The University of San Diego makes every effort to comply with these laws to ensure that all of our students, faculty, and staff can use our websites.

The Web Team has incorporated solutions to the majority of accessibility requirements into Cascade. However, as content contributors, there are a few things maintainers need to be aware of and with which they must comply.

The guide below demonstrates how to successfully comply with the most common accessibility issues maintainers face. 

  • Descriptive Link Text – Avoid using generic, or duplicate text for hyperlinks. This is most frequently seen with the use of "click here."
  • Headings – Verify order and need for headings.
  • Forms – Use ARIA tags, and form labels. See Creating Accessible Forms.
    • . Guideline: No more than 25% of the image should be text.
  • Link Behavior – Links which open in a new window should warn the user of the behavior.
    • The title attribute can be used to warn the user of the link behavior.
    • Alternatively, when all links following open in a new window, then a warning in the content area like, "the following links open in a new window," may be preferred. This option is less cumbersome to non-sighted users when there are many or all links on a page opening in a new window.
    • PDF Accessibility – Ensure text is accessible, and documents are not scanned images of text.
    • .
    • Headings – Never use heading 1. All page titles are automatically set as Heading 1 by default. Verify order and need for headings.
    • Tables – Tables should have a summary and have properly labeled header cells if appropriate. See Data Tables Accessibility.



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    Descriptive Link Text

    All links must have text which remains meaningful even without context. People using screen readers may not have access to anything outside of the link text to inform them about the link.

    Avoid using links such as "click here," and "RSVP."

    Below are examples of accessible links and an inaccessible links.





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    Accessible Link Examples

    Spring Schedule

    Fall Schedule

    Click here for the Spring Schedule

    RSVP for the Winter Fundraiser



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    Inaccessible Link Examples

    Click here

    Click here for the Spring Schedule

    RSVP

    RSVP for the Winter Fundraiser

    Here




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    Accessible Documents (PDFs)

    Many users upload and link to PDFs and other document types. We must ensure that all documents are accessible.

    Generally, try clicking on the text in the document and see if it highlights the text. If it does, then it should be accessible.

    However, if the entire page or the entire document becomes highlighted, then it is probably a "flat image." This means that as far as computers are concerned, what looks like words to us is simply a random assortment of colors.

    How to Convert a PDF to Be Accessible




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    Accessible Document

    Notice that when the word "only" is double-clicked, only it is highlighted.

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    Inaccessible Document

    Notice that when you double-click anywhere on the document, only the intractable page icon in the middle of the document highlights.

    This means the document is not actual text, but a "flat image," and thus, inaccessible.

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