Accessibility

As part of our commitment to providing access to higher education for all members of the diverse communities of our service area, 黑料正能量 has a distinct interest and an affirmative responsibility to post information in formats that reduce barriers to accessibility. 黑料正能量C complies with policies and regulations governing the behavior of taxpayer-funded institutions related to the provisions of Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Content and documents posted to 黑料正能量C-controlled websites are to be posted in the most accessible manner feasible, either directly or through accommodations of known differences, in the format most appropriate for the purpose and intended audience of the information. PDFs and other documents must be posted in ways that address Section 504 and 508 requirements, unless in very limited circumstances where time sensitivity, audience impact, or legal obligations of the college dictate the temporary posting of an inaccessible document until a compliant version of document is available. Due to the complex nature of ensuring accessibility of online documents of various types, the Web Office strongly advises that information be posted on web pages in HTML format.

When creating content for the web it must follow 508C compliance guidelines for the disabled. Each page will be validated through a W3C and will not be able to be published until compliant. All content must be optimized for all reasonable consumption situations, i.e. tablets, smartphones, mobile devices, modern browsers, and various connectivity speeds.

Accessibility Primer

Creating and Checking Accessible PDFs

Refer to the following as a 2-part primer for creating and checking documents for accessibility (). This is not an exhaustive guide to make PDFs accessible but rather an overview covering the most common errors, fixes, and best practices.

Microsoft Word Tips

Upgrade Your Software

Upgrade to the most recent version of Microsoft Word. If you have MS Word 2016 or later, you should have a "Check Accessibility" option under the "Review" tab. Use this tool to identify and correct common accessibility issues identified by MS Word. You'll still have a couple of things to check and possibly correct once you've saved your Word document as a PDF but this can significantly reduce the amount of work you'll need to do once you get there. 

Use Headings Correctly

Use document headings for structure, not style. One of the most common accessibility mistakes is to use Headings for style purposes (e.g. to make text look bigger and bolder or a particular color). If you would like your text to look a certain way, use the text formatting tools such as font size, bold, italic, etc. directly. Or you can create custom styles using the Styles pane. Just don't use Headings such as Heading 1, 2, 3, etc. for cosmetic purposes.

Why You Shouldn't Use Headings for Styling Purposes

Screen reader technology uses Headings to convey the structure and organization of a document to its users. Headings, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. create document structure in the same way that a table of contents is organized. Word (as well as Google Docs) can auto-generate a table of contents for your document based on its headings. It will assume Heading 1 blocks are like "chapters" and will nest Heading 2 blocks as sub-sections of any Heading 1 preceding it (and so on for Heading 3, etc.). The bottom line is that Headings need to be nested properly to be accessible.

Properly Nesting Headings

Think of Headings the Same Way You Think of an Outline:

  • Heading 1 is the first tier of bullets in an outline such as this.
    • Heading 2 is like any second-level bullet. In an outline, you can't skip to a third-level bullet without a second-level before it. Likewise, you should never skip a heading level in your documents. Doing so will create an accessibility issue.
      • Heading 3 can only exist after level 2 and so on.
    • Heading 2: You can come back from level 3 to level 2鈥�
    • Heading 2: ...and have as many same-level headings next to each other as the content necessitates. Note that you could also return to a Heading 1 from a Heading 3, just not the other way around, just like this outline.
  • Returning to a Heading 1 signifies a whole new "chapter" or section of your content. 

Use Tables for Data, Not Layout

Use tables for data only, not for layout. Another common mistake that makes accessibility a challenge in PDFs is when a table has been used to visually lay out content in a particular way. Tables should only be used for their intended purpose 鈥� to display content within a grid of columns and rows identified by column headers. Every column must have a header labeling the content of that column.

Images Require Alternate Text

Add alternate text to /strategic-communications-and-marketing/guides-and-reference/web-governance-policy/images. Images are required to have alternate text, text that describes an /strategic-communications-and-marketing/guides-and-reference/web-governance-policy/image that gets read back to users using assistive technology such as a screen reader. Microsoft Word's Accessibility Checker will guide you in how to add alternate text to your /strategic-communications-and-marketing/guides-and-reference/web-governance-policy/images. 

Save As PDF from Word

Possibly the strongest argument for updating to the most recent version of Microsoft Word is its updated "Save as..." functionality. This uses an online service that helps to ensure that the accessibility fixes that you made carry over to the exported PDF file you're generating. 

Adobe Acrobat Pro Tips

Note: If you jumped straight here but skipped the Microsoft Word Tips section above, please go back and review that section. Unless you have very few minor edits to an existing 508-compliant PDF, you always want to start from scratch in a new Word document and "Save as" PDF 鈥� you'll be thankful that you did. 

Upgrade Your Software

Obtain, or upgrade to, the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat Pro. The built-in accessibility checker and some of its automated tasks, which can aid you in making your PDF 508 compliant, have significantly improved in more recent versions and should save you considerable time and frustration compared with older versions.

Use guided actions to Correct the Most Common Accessibility Errors

The quickest way to take care of the most common accessibility issues in your PDF is by using the Make Accessible action within the Use guided actions tool menu. This will scan the document and walk you through tasks such as adding the document title, alternate text for /strategic-communications-and-marketing/guides-and-reference/web-governance-policy/images (if any are found to be missing), and more.

If you don't see the Use guided actions tool, simply select the "All tools" tab at the top left of the application window. If you still don't see it in the initial list of tools, click "View more" from the bottom of the list and find it. We recommend dragging the tool toward the top of the list for future use.

 

From within the Use guided actions tool you'll find the Make Accessible action, which is an automated wizard that will walk you through high-level items to make your document accessible. The final step of the Make Accessible action will run Acrobat's built-in accessibility checker, which will provide you with a visual report of what passes and what might fail. The Make Accessible action will have taken care of most, if not all, of these issues in a basic text document. But you still may encounter errors and should follow Adobe's documentation for fixes to those errors once they have been flagged. For more detail on how to do this, continue reading the following section.

Check Your PDF for Accessibility Issues

Verify that your PDF files meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities. To do this, open your PDF and open the Prepare for accessibility tool found under All tools. If you already ran the Make Accessible action outlined above, you can skip to Inspecting the Results further down.

If you don't see the Prepare for acce