Accessibility Resources

The University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources is committed to making its websites accessible to all users. ANR has designed and developed features on all websites to improve accessibility for any users with disabilities.

User friendly and accessible websites tend to perform better in Search Engine Optimization or SEO. This is good reason to pay attention to these details, as the benefits outweigh the extra effort that might be required.

We provide the following list of tools to further test and improve accessibility. Original Accessibility Links from UCOP.

WebAIM Contrast Checker: Contrast and color use are vital to accessibility. All users, including those with visual disabilities, must be able to understand content on the page.; This tool is web based software that can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection.
Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA): This Color Contrast Analyzer is a desktop application with both Windows and Mac versions.; It is a free colour contrast checker to optimize your content - including text and visual elements - for individuals with color-blindness or low vision impairments.
WebAIM.org: WebAIM is an online repository of accessibility information and tools.
An Alt Attribute (Text) Decision Tree: This decision tree describes how to use the alt attribute of the <img> element in various situations. For some types of images, there are alternative approaches, such as using CSS background images for decorative images or web fonts instead of images of text.
Alternative Text on WebAIM.org: A more detailed alt text (attributes) resource that explores different approaches to alt text for images, video and other non-text content.
UK Home Office Accessibility Posters (pdf document): Another favorite resource, particularly suited for introducing folks to accessibility. This posters series offers simple "Do "/ "Do Not " guidance for designing for users who have different disabilities. Great for printing out and hanging around the office.
Creating Accessible PDF Documents: This LinkedIn Learning course, taught by Chad Chelius, is highly recommended. It covers much of the same material as this training program but explores a few areas further, like Adobe InDesign.; There's also a follow-up course taught by Chad: Advanced Accessible PDF Documents.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: The WCAG standards currently adopted by UC's Information Technology Accessibility policy (pdf document). The policy should be updated to WCAG 2.1 within the next year or two and eventually WCAG 2.2, so you may want to explore those as well.
HHS Section 508 Guide Tagging PDF's in Adobe Acrobat Pro (pdf document) & HHS Required Fixes for PDF Files: Two excellent resources offered by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services that can help answer further questions about PDF document accessibility and PDF document tagging.
PDF Association (PDF/UA) Document Tagging Syntax Guide (pdf document): PDF/UA is one of the most prominent and authoritative sets of PDF accessibility standards in the world. This guide can help you learn their recommended tag structures for different types of PDF content.
Disability Impacts All of Us: CDC infographic capturing statistics on the number of adult Americans who have certain disabilities/impairments. This page has a huge info graphic that also includes the text of the graphic as plain text below. This is important because otherwise the page would not be accessible.
Invisible Content Just for Screen Reader Users on WebAIM.org: Shares techniques and copyable HTML/CSS for making certain HTML elements invisible visually and only available to screen reader users.
Creating Accessible Tables on WebAIM.org: Page 1 of a two-part WebAIM.org article on optimizing table accessibility; this page discusses layout considerations.; Make sure to also check out Page 2, Data Tables, which shares guidance for marking up data tables so they're even more accessible and easy for assistive technology users to parse.
Keyboard Accessibility on WebAIM.org and Keyboard Navigation on Gnome Help: These two resources provide an overview of keyboard navigation commands, while the WebAIM page also provides guidance for keyboard-only testing.
Semantic HTML: the foundation of web accessibility: There are many HTML tags that have Semantic Meaning, and help an author define content and structure. Semantic HTML is considered the foundation of web accessibility.; It is especially valuable for humans who read the HTML, and for screen readers for the visually disabled. Structure becomes much more apparent, and content can be more easy to understand.; In Site Builder there a limited number of html tags that offered via the text editor. But someone with html experience and knowlege can add just about any html tag to the page using the Source Code view in the text editor. You can find that view by clicking on the <> icon.; Some Semantic HTML Tags: <article>,<aside>,<details>,<figcaption>,<figure>,<footer>,<header>,<main>,<mark>,<nav>,<section>,<summary>,<time>,<p>,<dl>,<ol>,<ul>,etc
Mozilla List of HTML Tags: There are a large number of HTML Tags and with careful use can make HTML easier to read for humans, robots and screen readers. Most of the HTML tags have Semantic meaning, and can add valuable structure to your markup. Many developers skip using many semantic HTML tags and instead depend on a handful of generic tags to get the job done.
Mozilla on Accessibility: Accessibility (often abbreviated to A11y — as in, "a", then 11 characters, and then "y") in web development means enabling as many people as possible to use websites, even when those people's abilities are limited in some way.

UC-based Resources

UC's Information Technology Accessibility policy (pdf document)

UC's official policy related to accessibility.

Electronic Accessibility

Website of the UC Systemwide Electronic Accessibility Committee (EAC).

Word-to-PDF and PDF Accessibility Guide (pdf document)

A guide for manually checking and implementing accessibility in Word and PDF documents. The guide was written to MS Word 2016 and has not yet been updated to MS Word 365 but most of its information remains accurate and relevant.

Updated eCourse Accessibility Checklist (pdf document)

A checklist/guide capturing UC's preferred standards for eCourse accessibility. These standards reflect WCAG 2.0 requirements, translated to an eCourse context, plus UC-recommended best practices. This guide also offers detailed information specific to accessibility in Articulate Storyline 360 and instructions on how to achieve certain UC standards in Storyline.

Accessibility Demystified

UC's 2022 Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) webinar. The Rich Text Editor: Maintaining Accessibility portion in particular is relevant to this program. It's about 16 minutes long and offers guidance applicable to most text/content editing platforms, not just rich text editors (RTE); it's a condensed version of much of the same guidance taught in this program and is great for sharing with colleagues who want an introduction to developing more accessible content. The accompanying RTE PowerPoint (pptx) shares all of the talking points in text form and even includes practice exercises, complete with video demonstrations and answer keys.

Accessibility is for Everyone

UC's 2021 Global Accessibility Awareness Day webinar. The Simple Steps for Improving Accessibility portion offers guidance relevant for content producers (all of which is covered in this program), while the Demystifying Captions in Less than 10 Minutes portion offers guidance relevant to video accessibility.

UCOP Creating Accessible Documents Systemwide Training Program

A six-session training program focused on how to evaluate and achieve accessibility in digital documents. Sessions will be one hour long, conducted via Zoom, occurring at a regular time every other week.

Additional support opportunities will be available to participants throughout the program so they can ask questions, confirm their understanding, engage in practice activities and explore specific areas relevant to their work.

Program topics include:

Accessibility fundamentals
Creating accessible Word documents
Creating accessible PowerPoint slide decks
Evaluating and improving PDF accessibility
Introduction to assistive technologies