Webpage Accessibility for visually impaired and hard of hearing

 Not all people can read your social media messages. In fact, over 12 million Americans 40 and older have some sort of visual impairment with 1.3 million legally blind. 

The number of young people under 18 with vision difficulty was 547,083 in 2019. Visual impairment cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2050. 

 

John Whiting of WebAim talked about 10 things that PIOs (andweb developers) can do to make web content more accessible.

 

1.     Understand your responsibilities

 

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were developed in 1999, revised in 2008 and updated in 2018. A checklist of standards is available onthe WebAim website. These are mandated by federal statutes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Types of Assistive Technology Used

 

2.     Use proper heading structure from headings styles

 

This is a chart of acceptable heading styles listed in Word.

 

3.     Give images alternative text

 

Alternative text should be:

• Be equivalent.

• Be succinct.

• NOT be redundant.

• NOT use the phrases "image of ..." or "graphic of ..." to describe the image.

 

4.     Format your tables

• Caption or heading
• Table headers
• Column or row

 

5.     Choose text colors with good contrast

This tee-shirt is red, but the color blind see it in green.

 

 Yellow is one of the hardest colors to see in an advertisement or presentation slides.

 

6.     Don't rely on color

• Ensure enough contrast
• Don’t rely on color alone.
• Don’t remove underline from links

 

7.     Make links descriptive

Poor – Click here

Good – Click here for our campus map

Better – Click here for our campus map

Best – Campus map

 

For more information on this topic, read Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine since 2014-

https://www.amazon.com/Humanitarian-crisis-eastern-Ukraine-since-ebook/dp/B09VHB59V7/

 

8.     Use lists correctly

 

Use numbers when there is order or a hierarchy.

Use bullets when equal importance.

 

 

9.     Use captioned videos

Descriptive transcripts are recommended for all media.

 

10.  Convert (don’t Print) to PDF

 If Create PDF is not available, use “Save As” 

 

 

 

Source: WebAim presentation for the the Utah PIO conference. (September 13, 2022). 

https://webaim.org/presentations/2022/pio/