Creating Accessible and Visually Consistent LibGuides

Accessibility ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can access, navigate, and benefit from your content.

• One in four adults in the United States has a disability
• Discrediting even a portion of that 25% of the population will have an impact on your website
• It's the law. Ignoring accessibility at an educational institution can be seen as illegal discrimination
• Accessibility helps improve search engine optimization
• It's the right thing to do

• Concise Titles: Keep guide titles, sub-page titles, and box headings concise and purposeful. Aim for 1-5 words that clearly convey intent.
• Unique and Descriptive Headings: Headings should be distinct and relevant to the content they introduce. Avoid vague or overly similar headings that could confuse users.
• Avoid Special Characters: Refrain from using special characters in page titles, guide names, and widget titles. Screen readers may misinterpret these, causing awkward pauses or navigation difficulties.
• Avoid Library Jargon: Use words users will understand
• Use Title Case Per Capitalization: Capitalized letters are more distinct, which can be helpful for content organization, scanning, and readability.
• Use "and" instead of "&" in titles: Some screen readers may not interpret ampersand (&) correctly. To ensure better accessibility for users with visual impairments, it’s best to use "and" whenever possible.

• Logical Structure: Use proper heading hierarchy (e.g., H1 for the main title, H2 for section titles, H3 for subsections). This ensures a clear and logical reading order.
• Avoid Skipping Levels: Maintain a sequential heading order to enhance usability for screen reader users. Box titles are H2, any subheadings within that content box should go in order starting from H3, H4, H5.

• Font Consistency: Use the default fonts provided in the platform for readability and brand consistency.
• Color Contrast: Ensure text meets WCAG AA standards with a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for large text. This includes text within images. WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
• Avoid All Caps and Italics: Limit the use of all caps or italics for large text blocks as they can hinder readability.
• Line Spacing and Alignment: Use sufficient line spacing and left-aligned text to improve readability.

• Alt Text: Provide descriptive alt text for all images, summarizing their content and purpose. Alt text should be concise but meaningful.
• Text Redundancy: Ensure critical information presented in images is also available in text format to support users who cannot perceive visual content.
• Avoid Decorative Overload: Limit the use of purely decorative images or use null (empty) alt attributes to prevent screen readers from announcing them unnecessarily.

• Descriptive Link Text: Write links that clearly describe their destination or purpose (e.g., “View the library hours” instead of “Click here”).
• Avoid Duplicate Links: Ensure link text is unique for different URLs to avoid confusion.

• Appropriate Use: Reserve tables for tabular data. Do not use them for layout purposes.
• Headers and Captions: Include clear column and row headers and provide a descriptive caption for context.
• Simplify Structure: Avoid complex, multi-level tables that may confuse screen reader users.

• Captions and Transcripts: Provide captions for videos and transcripts for audio content to support users with hearing impairments.
• Avoid Autoplay: Do not use autoplay for multimedia. Allow users to start and stop content manually.
• Keyboard Control: Ensure multimedia players can be operated using a keyboard.