Making Your Resource Accessible
To be deemed accessible, a resource must ensure that individuals, of all abilities, can equally reach, access, and use it. Visit WAVE to get a suite of evaluation tools and refer to this University of Windsor checklist if you want to confirm your resource is accessible.
For further information, consider the ideas shown below.
Colour Contrast
Accounting for colour contrast is done for the elderly, individuals with vision deficiencies, certain screen resolutions, and ambient lighting. To ensure the colour contrast of your resource is sufficient, you can use tools such as:
Font Size
Certain considerations regarding the font that is used on certain documents are needed to ensure it is clear and accessible. Some of these include text resizing, spacing, and colour. Refer to WCAG for more information.
File Format
The format of the saved resource should be launchable with software native to the system, which can include:
- ODT
- PNG
- TXT
Websites that can be used to see the kinds of common file formats include:
Alternative Text
Alternative text or alt text improves image context, describing appearance and importance. This allows screen readers to be used for individuals with vision deficiencies. When writing alt text ensure that the description is as specific as possible but do not make it longer than it has to be. Finally, avoid spam phrases such as “picture of”; it doesn’t help describe anything and prolongs the length. For more detail refer to WCAG’s standards.
Captions
Captions improve accessibility to resources, such as videos, by providing text that can be used by individuals that have hearing deficiencies. For more information refer to WCAG’s input. Some of the tools that can be used to achieve this include:
