Web Accessibility & Guide Checklist (Internal LibGuides)

This section looks at the general guidance for creating any type of page within LibGuides. The guidance should be seen as best practice regardless of content. If you are unclear of any of the guidance on this page you can ask for one of the Digital Learning Designers to explain it in more detail.

Finer technical details will be marked in RED and dealt with by a one of the Digital Learning Designers.
Tutorials on how to complete certain tasks are highlighted in GREEN.

General Guidance Checklist

WCAG specifications need to be adhered to and are mixed in with our own expectations of design/layout. You can find references to these specifications in brackets, alongside tutorials on how to perform these actions in LibGuides, in the specific checklists.

• Layout
  • New guides should use the side navigation layout unless the guide is being used for a Reading and Resource list.
     
• All submitted guides/pages need to have instructions on what needs checking by approver.
  • Submitting a page for approval with no notes on what needs to be approved will be rejected by default. When a page is looked at there could be multiple draft boxes/pages/content, this is impossible to action without guidance, it is not down to an approver to guess what needs to be approved.
     
• If the page you are creating is giving instruction or advice, this content needs to appear on the page rather than just a downloadable file.
  • We can't restrict content based on downloading files. Downloaded files can still be used as a supplementary resource but second to the content. A student could be using a PC in a public library or another shared device which doesn't allow downloading of files but still want's to view the information.
     
• Use plain language avoiding metaphors or figures of speech. (WCAG - 3.1.2)
  
  
• Documents need to be uploaded in an accessible format.
  • If you do use uploaded materials they need to be created in an accessible format. This should be seen as general good practice even if the documents aren't used online. In documents like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint for example, you need to style your content using Headings/Sub Headings and Paragraph text rather than making the text size larger and bold to make it look like a title. This is very important for people accessing content using assistive devices.
  • Tutorial - Word Accessibility Checker and How to create Accessible Word Documents
  • ​Tutorial - Create Accessible PDFs from Word file
  • Tutorial - PowerPoint Accessibility Checker and How to create Accessible Powerpoint Documents
     
• Make sure any images which depict information relating to the page topic must have ALT tags. (WCAG - 1.1.1)
  • ALT tags are important for visitors who have a visual impairment and might not be able to see the screen and/or image properly. The  tag can be read by a screen reader as an alternative way of delivering the information that the image is depicting. Visitors without visual impairments would not see the extra text.
    • Tutorial - ALT Tags
       
• Decorative images still need empty ALT tags. (WCAG - 1.1.1)
  • ALT tags are important for visitors who have a visual impairment and might not be able to see the screen and/or image properly. The  tag can be read by a screen reader as an alternative way of delivering the information that the image is depicting. Visitors without visual impairments would not see the extra text.
  • Tutorial - ALT Tags
     
• Provide a text alternative for complex images like charts and graphs in the actual content. (WCAG - 1.1.1)
  • Complex images can be hard to both display and/or adequately describe the image in an ALT tag. In these circumstances it's best to provide a plain language alternative to using the image.
     
• All boxes should be a floating box, except on the reading and resource guides​
  • ​When you create or edit a box, tick the checkbox for 'Floating Box'. This makes sure that the page isn't unnecessarily cluttered with lines and titles.
     
• Sign posting sentence at top guiding what the user needs to do.
  • This is an important element to make sure visitors always know where they are and what they are expected to do.
     
• Guide and every sub page needs friendly URL.
  • Friendly URLs make pages much more accessible and also allows search engines like Google or Bing index our pages in a friendly human readable fashion.
     
• Videos need transcripts.
  • If you have created or added a video to your content, all reasonable effort needs to be taken to make sure a transcript of the audio is also available to the user. Embedded YouTube normally offers this as part of the video however if it is a video of yourself a transcript will need to be provided. You can contact one of the Digital Learning Designers who can create a transcript for you however you will need to check and amend it for accuracy before uploading it as a PDF next to your video.
     
• Images need to have class="img-responsive" -- (For reference - DLD will check and update all images)
  • This extra tag added in the HTML of the page will make sure the image that you have added resizes to a visitors device.
     
• Videos need rel=0 -- (For reference - DLD will check and update all videos)
  • This video tag makes sure that if a video has been embedded from YouTube or Vimeo that it doesn't flash up adverts or playlists after the video has finished.