Creating accessible content
Using the principles of Universal Design and best practices allows for the creation of content that is simple and intuitive for all users, flexible to accommodate assistive technology and provides accessible information.
Best Practices for All Documents
The following best practices can be applied to many different kinds of content and helps to create simple, structured documents that are easy to follow for all users.
Font Style and Size
- Fonts: Simple, standard fonts such as Arial and Verdana are recommended for their readability and availability.
- Font Size: 12 points or more is recommended for readability.
Color
- Good contrast is necessary for users with low-vision and color-blindness to view content clearly.
- Use bold text or styles in place of color for emphasis so that it is “visible” to screen readers, which do not differentiate between different colors of text.
Alternative Text and Captions
- Alternative text and captions allow users with screen readers to “read” the content of images, graphics and tables.
- When using images, graphics and tables, be sure they provide meaningful context and not just visual interest to your document.
- When creating alternative text, try to keep it simple (like a tweet) by asking yourself:
- Why is this image used?
- What message is it conveying?
- It is not necessary to include “Photo/Image of…” in the alternative text since screen readers with discern it is an image.
- In most software, right clicking an image will bring up the option to add Alt Text or the option will be given when originally embedding the image.
- Screen readers work better with images formatted to display in-line with text rather than wrapping, or floating text around the image.
Video Content
- To make video content accessible to users with cognitive and hearing impairments, use captioning and transcripts.
- Kaltura videos and presentations can be made with captions and transcripts at media.lafayette.edu