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Victoria, B.C.
Accessibility Toolkit 2nd Edition by BCcampus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
© 2015, 2018 BCcampus
The CC licence permits you to retain, reuse, copy, redistribute, and revise this book—in whole or in part—for free providing the authors are attributed as follows:
If you redistribute all or part of this book, it is recommended the following statement be added to the copyright page so readers can access the original book at no cost:
This book can be referenced. In APA citation style, it would appear as follows:
Visit BCcampus Open Education to learn about open education in British Columbia.
The first edition of the Accessibility Toolkit was published February 2015.
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-77420-030-8
Print ISBN: 978-1-77420-029-2
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BCcampus Open Education believes that education must be available to everyone which means supporting the creation of free, open, and accessible educational resources. We are actively committed to increasing the accessibility and usability of the textbooks we produce.
The web version of the Accessibility Toolkit has been designed with accessibility in mind by incorporating the following features:
In addition to the web version, this book is available in a number of file formats including PDF, EPUB (for eReaders), MOBI (for Kindles), and various editable files. Here is a link to where you can download this book in another file format. Look for the “Download this book” drop-down menu to select the file type you want.
This book links to a number of external websites. For those using a print copy of this resource, the link text is underlined, and you can find the web addresses for all links in the back matter of the book.
While we strive to ensure that this resource is as accessible and usable as possible, we might not always get it right. Any issues we identify will be listed below. There are currently no known issues.
Location of issue | Need for improvement | Timeline | Work around |
---|---|---|---|
The web version of this resource has been designed to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA. In addition, it follows all guidelines in Appendix A: Checklist for Accessibility. The development of this toolkit involved working with students with various print disabilities who provided their personal perspectives and helped test the content.
We are always looking for ways to make our resources more accessible. If you have problems accessing this resource, please contact us to let us know so we can fix the issue.
Please include the following information:
You can contact us one of the following ways:
This statement was last updated on August 21, 2019.
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Welcome to BCcampus Open Education’s Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition. This support resource was written for open textbook authors—and others involved in writing and publishing—to create a truly open and accessible textbook.
BCcampus Open Education began in 2012 as the B.C. Open Textbook Project with the goal of making post-secondary education in British Columbia more accessible by reducing student costs through the use of openly licensed textbooks and other OER. BCcampus supports the post-secondary institutions of British Columbia as they adapt and evolve their teaching and learning practices to enable powerful learning opportunities for the students of B.C. BCcampus Open Education is funded by the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills & Training, and the Hewlett Foundation.
Open educational resources (OER) are defined as teaching, learning, and research resources that, through permissions granted by the copyright holder, allow others to use, distribute, keep, or make changes to them. We consider this publication — along with our guides, slide decks, and other support materials –as a type of OER that trains faculty, staff, and students how to build, customize, and use open textbooks.
This toolkit does not come with an index. Instead, use the search field located in the top-right of each page in the online version to locate a specific topic.
The BCcampus Writing Guidelines for Articles and Web Content and BCcampus Open Education Style Guide, along with the attached style sheet [Word file], were referenced during the copy editing and proofreading phases of this toolkit.
For more information about open education in British Columbia, please visit the BCcampus Open Education website.
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Thank you to…
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The original Accessibility Toolkit was a collaboration between BCcampus (Amanda Coolidge), Camosun College (Sue Doner), and Tara Robertson from the Centre for Accessible Post-secondary Education Resources BC (CAPER-BC), an organization that provides accessible learning and teaching materials to students and instructors who cannot use conventional print materials because of disabilities.
The focus of many open textbook projects is to provide access to education at low or no cost. But what does access mean? If the materials are not accessible for each and every student, do they fulfill the mandate to deliver fully open textbooks?
The goal of the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition is to provide the resources needed for each content creator, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, and teaching assistant to create a truly open and accessible textbook – one that is free and accessible for all students.
The suggestions provided in this guide are intended for the non-technical user. If you are looking for more technical descriptions about how to make your work accessible, review the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
In this second edition, Josie Gray has made the following additions and changes.
The French translation of the first edition of the Accessibility Toolkit, La Trousse d’outils d’accessibilité, is still available. With time, a French translation of this second edition will be made available.
In addition to providing general strategies for ensuring the creation of accessible content, the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition includes specific instructions on how to achieve accessibility requirements in Pressbooks. Pressbooks is an online authoring tool based on WordPress, and used by BCcampus Open Education (and other open textbook projects) to create and modify open textbooks. (See the BCcampus Open Education Pressbooks Guide.)
In May 2018, Pressbooks announced their Accessibility Policy, outlining their efforts and commitment to making their software accessible.
BCcampus maintains a free self-serve instance of Pressbooks for faculty and staff from post-secondary institutions in British Columbia and the Yukon.
To Care and Comply: Accessibility of Online Course Content
Here is a video looking at Portland Community College’s web-accessibility guidelines, and how supporting students with disabilities is a shared responsibility across the college. The video includes stories from students whose education is impacted by inaccessible web content, and ways faculty and staff can improve online course materials to make course content more accessible.
I
Section Topics
This section describes key concepts that describe and will direct your accessibility work. They include:
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Universal Design is the process of creating products (devices, environments, systems, and processes) that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations (environments, conditions, and circumstances). Universal Design emerged from the slightly earlier concept of being barrier-free, the broader accessibility movement, and adaptive technology and assistive technology. It also seeks to blend aesthetics into these core considerations.
Let’s review two common definitions of Universal Design.
Universal Design or Universal Instructional Design (UID)
an approach to teaching that consists of the proactive design and use of inclusive instructional and evaluation strategies. This approach provides academic access to a broad range of learners, including students with disabilities, while:
- maintaining academic standards […]
- reducing the need to having to retrofit after a course is already underwayUniversity of Victoria, "Universal Instructional Design (UID)," Centre for Accessible Learning, accessed March 27, 2018, https://www.uvic.ca/services/cal/staff/universal-instructional-design/index.php.
Universal Instructional Design (UID)
an approach to designing course instruction, materials and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. UID provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. UID allows the student to control the method of accessing information while the instructor monitors the learning process and initiates any beneficial methods… It should be noted that UID does not remove academic challenges; it removes barriers to access.Ohio State University, "Universal Design for Learning," Partnership Grant: Fast Facts for Faculty, accessed March 27, 2018, https://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Universal_Design.htm.
For our purposes, we frame the practice of using Universal Design in a holistic and manageable way and begin by addressing the barriers that are easy to anticipate and proactively remediate. This toolkit, therefore, will provide guidance if the answer to any of the following questions is “yes.”
In the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition, we focus on an adjunct to Universal Design: Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn and provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone. Rather than a single, one-size-fits-all solution, it offers a flexible approach that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs."The UDL Guidelines," CAST, accessed August 21, 2018, http://udlguidelines.cast.org/.
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Designers use personas to represent the different types of people who might access a website or product. In this toolkit, we have used personas to help you keep in mind the types of students and their various abilities while you’re developing content. We’ve also used these personas to introduce different types of hardware and software that students typically use.
We’ve adapted personas from Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery’s book A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experience so they are specific to post-secondary students with print disabilities in British Columbia (based on data from CAPER-BC Annual Report [PDF] and the students who attended our focus group).
These are some of the students who will be reading the open textbooks that you write.
Mark is 17 years old. He is a future heavy-duty mechanic with a learning disability that was diagnosed in Grade 8. Mark absorbs information best by hearing it and enjoys making and fixing stuff with his hands. He’s in his first semester of college, taking trades courses and loving it. Mark can’t wait to complete the foundation courses and move into his first apprenticeship placement. He lives at home with his family; they all share one computer.
Ability: Difficulty absorbing a lot of information when reading
Aptitude: Basic technology user
Attitude: Prefers to do things himself, but can get easily frustrated or impatient, especially with technology
Assistive technology: MP3 player
Format preference: MP3 so he can listen on the go
Listen to an MP3 recording of a synthetic voice.
An audio element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can listen to it online here: https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/?p=31
Jacob is a fourth-year business administration student who is blind and a bit of a geek. Jacob is 28 years old and can’t wait to get his last few classes out of the way so he can start his career. He shares an apartment with his girlfriend.
Ability: Blind since birth
Aptitude: Skilled technology user
Attitude: Digital native, early adopter, persists until he gets it
Assistive technologies:
Format preference: Electronic text, which he can easily use in JAWS and with VoiceOver; detests PDFs
Watch a student using JAWS (4:08-6:18s).
Listen to a computer-science student’s screen reader.
Diana is retraining to be a personal coach after she experienced vision loss and was unable to continue working as a bus driver. She is 48 years old and taking many of her classes online. She lives with her husband.
Ability: Gradual loss of vision; can easily read using a magnifier, but her eyes fatigue quickly
Aptitude: Intermediate technology user
Attitude: Has a routine and likes to stick to it
Assistive technologies:
Format preference: PDF or electronic text that she can enlarge on her computer or listen to using TextAloud
Watch a student using ZoomText (0-1:31).
Trish is a college student taking university transfer courses who prefers using print books. An accident left Trish with several physical disabilities. She is 18 years old and lives with her family.
Ability: Suffers from brain damage, paralysis, and has motor issues
Aptitude: Basic computer user, intermediate iPad user
Attitude: Generally dependent on family, so enjoys reading and studying independently
Assistive technologies:
Format preference: eBook formats, such as PDF, that can be easily loaded onto her iPad
Ann is a chemistry major with ADHD, a learning disability that makes it difficult for her to concentrate. She is 20 years old and hopes to become a pharmacist. Ann lives in a dorm on campus with two other female students.
Ability: ADHD, has difficulty concentrating
Aptitude: Intermediate computer user
Attitude: Struggles at times, but is very appreciative of how much learning software helps her
Assistive technology: Kurzweil learning software (on laptop)
Format preference: Reading and listening at the same time
Watch a student using Kurzweil on a computer (1:32-4:07).
Steven is an English major who is deaf. He is 23 years old and likes the flexibility of taking online classes. He lives by himself.
Ability: Native language is ASL; can speak and read lips
Aptitude: Intermediate technology user
Attitude: Can get annoyed about accessibility, such as lack of captions
Assistive technologies:
Format preference: No preference in regards to textbook formats; but, videos without captions are meaningless
Watch a video demonstration of CART. Note: this video is also captioned.
II
Section Topics
This section covers best practices for making your open textbook accessible. Each chapter covers which students benefit, why accessibility is important, and the steps required to make various elements accessible.
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Organizing content so it has a logical flow just makes sense. Using chapters, headings, and sub-headings to organize a resource allows students to clearly see how the main concepts are related. In addition, headings are one of the main ways that students using a screen reader navigate through a chapter.
Everyone benefits from having content that’s clearly organized. Well-organized content supports students who:
Headings help to identify the hierarchical structure of a document (e.g., sections, sub-sections). They provide a visual cue that helps sighted readers quickly navigate through sections of a document, skimming until they find the section they are looking for. Similarly, headings create logical divisions in the content and allow a non-sighted user to navigate a page or document easily using a screen reader.
When it comes to using visual references to indicate the hierarchy and structure of a document, you might be accustomed to changing the font style, enlarging the type size, or highlighting the text with bold, underline or italics to create the impression of a heading. This approach presents problems when creating material with accessibility in mind because screen readers won’t identify the text as a heading. Instead, the screen reader will just “read” through the text of a heading as if it were regular content, missing your intended cues about structure and organization.
In Pressbooks, use the visual editor to tag sections with Heading 1, sub-sections with Heading 2, sub-sections of sub-sections with Heading 3, and so on.
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In this section, we provide recommendations to guide your inclusion of accessible, image-based content.
Images are non-text elements that include photographs, illustrations, diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs, and maps.
File types used: GIF, JPG, PNG
Before you can determine what to do to make an image accessible, you must identify its purpose or value to your textbook. Consider the following questions:
This work supports students who:
Determine the role of each image used in content as either functional or decorative. Once that has been decided, select how each image will meet accessibility needs by providing descriptive text in a variety of ways. Figures, such as charts and graphs that rely on colour to convey information, should also be evaluated for accessibility by students who are unable to distinguish between or see colour.
Consider what your content page would look like if the images didn’t load. Now try writing alternative text for each image that would work as a replacement and provide the same information as the image.
There are three ways to provide alternative text descriptions for images:
As you work on developing your alternative text descriptions, keep the following recommendations and guidelines in mind:
You can use the surrounding text to provide the same information as conveyed by the image. This is often the best option for complex images because it makes the information available for everyone, not just those using the alt tags.
If you are editing someone else’s work for accessibility, you are probably not at liberty to start adding to the main text. However, if you are the author, this is the best and easiest option.
If an image has been adequately described in the surrounding text, you can either provide a few-word description of the image in the alt tag or follow the procedures for decorative images.
An alt tag refers to the alt attribute (alt is short for alternative) within an IMG tag. All images uploaded into Pressbooks have an alt tag, but for them to be useful, you need to insert an image description.
Alt tags are used in two cases:
Alt tags should be no longer than 125 characters, including spaces and punctuation.All screen readers are different, so a 125-character max is a recommendation. Other sources may provide a different number. This is because when a screen reader finds an image, it will say “Graphic” before reading out the alt tag. If the alt tag is longer than 125 characters, the screen reader will interrupt the flow of text and say “Graphic” again, before continuing to read out the alt tag. This can be confusing. For images that require descriptions longer than 125 characters, see the section on long descriptions.
To edit an image’s alt tag in Pressbooks, click on the image and select the PENCIL icon (edit). Under image details, there will be two textboxes: one titled “Caption” and one titled “Alternative Text.” The “Caption” box contains the image’s caption, which appears under the image in the visual editor. The “Alternative Text” box is where you describe the image.
Complex images, especially charts or graphs, will often require descriptions longer than 125 characters and it may not always be possible to add an explanation to the surrounding text. In this case, you can provide a link to a longer image description or an accessible table. One way to do this is to create a section for long descriptions in your resource and use links to allow people to easily switch between the image and its description and back again.
Figure 1.1 shows an image from Introduction to Sociology – 2nd Canadian Edition that requires a longer description than what can fit in an alt tag. As such, at the end of the caption, there is a link to the image’s description.
Anyone using this textbook can access this image description by clicking on the [Image description] link, which will take them to the image description at the end of the chapter (or by flipping to the end of the chapter in the print version). This will also work for people using screen readers who are navigating through the book with a keyboard.
Curious about how this works? Try clicking on the [Image Description] link in the caption of Figure 1.1.
Adding a long description to an image in Pressbooks can be complicated, but the following four steps will help guide you through the process.
Even though you will be providing a long description, the image still needs an alt tag. In the Alternative Text field in the image editor, provide a brief image description (only a few words), and state that there is an image description available.
Example alt tag: Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale. Image description available.
Example:
Figure 1.1 image description: The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale uses cartoon faces to illustrate the different levels of pain that correspond to a numbered scale from 1 to 10. Zero is smiling, 2 is a small smile, 4 is a straight face, 6 is a slightly sad face, 8 is a big sad face, and 10 is a bigger sad face that is crying.
Provide a link to the image description in the caption of the image. Because the description will be on the same page of the image, you will be providing a same-page link using anchor tags.
The following table displays how the caption will look in the visual editor view and in the image editor view.
Visual editor view | Figure 1.1 The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale helps health care providers assess an individual’s level of pain. What might a symbolic interactionist observe about this method? [Image Description] |
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Image editor view | Figure 1.1 The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale helps health care providers assess an individual’s level of pain. What might a symbolic interactionist observe about this method? <a href=”#fig1.1″>[Image Description]</a> |
Insert a link at the end of the image description that takes users back to the original image. This will make it easy for people to navigate back to their spot in the chapter after accessing the image description.
Example:
Figure 1.1 image description: The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale uses cartoon faces to illustrate the different levels of pain that correspond to a numbered scale from 1 to 10. Zero is smiling, 2 is a small smile, 4 is a straight face, 6 is a slightly sad face, 8 is a big sad face, and 10 is a bigger sad face that is crying. [Return to Figure 1.1]
Now that you have reviewed the steps to add a long description to a Pressbooks image, see Chapter 8 of the Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in B.C. open textbook for an example of what long descriptions look like in practice.
If an image does not add meaning, i.e., if it’s included for decorative or design purposes only, or if the image is adequately described in the caption and/or surrounding text, it doesn’t need an alt tag. Including alternative text descriptions for decorative images “simply slows the process down with no benefit because the screen-reading software vocalizes the content of the [alternative text description], whether that alternative text adds value or not.”"Top 10 Tips for Making Your Website Accessible," UC Berkeley: Web Access, accessed March 27, 2018, https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/resources/tips/web-accessibility#accessible-alt. However, this doesn’t mean that you should leave an alt tag blank.
When a screen reader detects an image with a blank alt tag, it will read out the image file location. If the above picture about the The Wong-Baker Faces pain scale didn’t have an alt tag, a screen reader would say, “Graphic: https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/wp-content/uploads/sites/184/2017/06/2049201506_0f9b17182a_o.jpg.”
When an image doesn’t require an alt tag, place two double-quotation marks (“”) in the Alternative Text field; this step will prompt the screen reader to say “Graphic” and move on to the caption.
Consider what your images would look like if they only displayed in black and white. Would any necessary context or content be lost if the colour was “turned off?” Images should not rely on colour to convey information; if your point requires colour, you may need to edit or format the image so the concepts presented are not lost to those who are colour blind or require high contrast between colours.
Example 1: Inaccessible Bar Chart
In Chart 1, colour is the only means by which information is conveyed. For students who are colour blind, have poor contrast vision, or are using a black-and-white print copy (see Chart 2), relevant information is lost.
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Example 2: Accessible Bar Chart
Students who are colour blind can distinguish between high-contrast shades. In Chart 3, contextual labels have been added to each bar at the bottom of the chart. Note that the chart will still require an alt tag.
Figure 1.1 image description: The Wong-Baker Faces pain rating scale uses cartoon faces to illustrate the different levels of pain that correspond to a numbered scale from 1 to 10. Zero is smiling, 2 is a small smile, 4 is a straight face, 6 is a slightly sad face, 8 is a big sad face, and 10 is a bigger sad face that is crying. [Return to Figure 1.1]
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In this section, we review how to add accessible links to content. Links include weblinks, links between different chapters of a book, links within a chapter, and links to attached files.
A link (also called a hyperlink) is found in a file, document, or web page that redirects the reader to additional information found in another online location such as a new web page; links are typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen.
File types used: HTML, PDF, DOCX, XLS
Generally, links are included within content to point the user to additional information that is available at another location. Links between different parts of a book are also used to facilitate navigation.
This work supports students who:
Links can be helpful. But, like other non-text elements, they must be assessed for how students with a range of challenges can and will access them. Understanding and attending to these needs through descriptive text, proper link opening, and—when needed—a web address will ensure that all students can benefit.
You need to ensure that all links have text that describes the topic or purpose of the link. This is important because people using screen readers might have their screen reader set to read out the text for each link on a page. As such, the link text must describe the content of the link when taken out of context for the surrounding paragraph. While link texts such as “click here” or “read more” will make sense to sighted users, they mean nothing when read on their own."Ensure link text is meaningful within context," Web Accessibility, accessed March 28, 2018, https://www.webaccessibility.com/best_practices.php?best_practice_id=1301.
Example 1: Click here for information on BCcampus Open Education.
Example 2: You can find more information on BCcampus Open Education at http://open.bccampus.ca/.
Example 3: Information on BCcampus Open Education is available online.
While the first two examples make sense in the context of the sentence, neither link text describes the purpose of its link. While the second example is better than the first, having the web address as the link text still does not make the purpose of the link clear. The third example is the most accessible.
If you want to link to something that isn’t a web page—such as a Word document, Excel file, or PDF—you should include this information in the link text."Links to non-HTML resources," WebAIM, accessed March 28, 2018, https://webaim.org/techniques/hypertext/hypertext_links#non_html. This is important because it informs the user what will happen when they click on the link, thus preventing confusion. In addition, a user may decide not to click on a link if they know it’s a certain file type. This typically happens when a user doesn’t have the software needed to open the file or when they know the file type is inaccessible to them.
Example: B.C. Open Textbooks Review Rubric [Word file]
The default setting for links in Pressbooks is that they not open in a new window or tab. This is the preferred behaviour, since a new window, opening unexpectedly, can be disorienting for people. This is especially true for individuals who have difficulty perceiving visual content."G200: Opening new windows and tabs from a link only when necessary," accessed March 28, 2018, W3C, http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20140916/G200.
However, if a link must open in a new window or tab, the best practice is to include a textual reference.Penn State, "Links on a Web Page," Accessibility, accessed March 28, 2018, http://accessibility.psu.edu/linkshtml.
Example: Information on BCcampus Open Education [New Tab] is available online.
Pressbooks allows you to edit whether or not a link opens in a new tab. Here is how:
One thing to keep in mind is that most open textbooks have a print-on-demand option. For that reason, it is a good idea to provide the web address for external links so people using a print copy of the book can find the online content. You can do this by including the web address in-text (Example 1), providing the web address in a footnote (Example 2), or by providing a list of web addresses on a single page in the back matter of the book organized by chapter (Example 3).
Example 1: Information on BCcampus Open Education (https://open.bccampus.ca) is available online.
Example 2: Information on BCcampus Open Educationhttps://open.bccampus.ca is available online.
Example 3: See the List of Links by Chapter for Print Users in the back matter of this toolkit.
If you are working in Pressbooks, there is an easy workaround that will cause the web address to be included in parentheses immediately after the link text in the Print PDF.
All you have to do is add the following to your PDF Custom Styles:Thank you to Christina Hendricks for sharing this workaround in her blog post: Some things I'm learning about accessibility and open textbooks.
However, there may be cases where you do not want a web address to be provided in the print copy. For example, the web address for an internal link to a specific chapter is not helpful for people using the print copy. As such, you can edit the Custom Styles to exclude certain links that have a particular class assigned. In this example, we have created a link class called “internal” and asked that all links with class=”internal” not have their web address provided in the PDF. Note that you will have to add the class to the link’s HTML yourself.
For example, the HTML for an internal link would be edited to look like this:
<a class=”internal” href=”/accessibilitytoolkit/chapter/links/”>Links</a>
And the Custom Styles would look like this:
For more information on how to edit the Custom Styles for your book, check out the chapter in the Pressbooks User Guide on Customizing your Exports with Custom Styles.
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In this section, we provide guidelines and recommendations for formatting tables.
In this context, tables refer to data tables, which include row and/or column header information to categorize content. (Tables that do not have headers are called layout tables.)
File types include: DOCX, HTML, PDF
A simple table includes a maximum of one header column and/or one header row. A complex table includes more than one header column and/or header row, and may include merged or split cells.Penn State, "Tables," Accessibility, accessed March 28, 2018, http://accessibility.psu.edu/tables.
We recommend you make every effort to keep data tables as simple in structure as possible. The more complex the design of a data table, the less accessible it will be for some students using screen-reading technology to access their textbook materials. Screen readers move left-to-right, top-to-bottom, one cell at a time, and because a screen reader does not repeat a cell, merging or splitting cells can affect the reading order of a table.
This work supports students who:
In the same way that your content hierarchy needs headings and structure (see Organizing Content), tables need a properly defined structure to be accessible. This means that you must add row and column headers to define the different sections of data. Screen readers read tables horizontally—cell by cell, row by row—and row and column headers help give context to the data in each cell for students who are blind, have low vision, or have a cognitive disability.
A simple table includes:
Example 1: How to Create a Simple Table
The table below is a simple table. Reviewed against the preceding requirements list, this table:
Colour Family | Bulbs | Shrubs | Trees |
---|---|---|---|
Pink | Tulips | Flowering currant | Ornamental plum |
Yellow | Daffodils | Forsythia | Star magnolia |
For a student accessing the table through a screen reader, the first row of data following the column headers will be presented along the lines of:
Marking cells in the first row and/or column of a table as header cells allows a screen reader to interpret the structure of a table and how cells relate to each other. This, in turn, ensures that someone using a screen reader can navigate through a table and understand what column/row a given cell is in. If a table doesn’t have headers, the screen reader will recite cell information starting in the upper left corner and continuing left to right, top to bottom.
As with section headings, it is not enough to bold or enlarge text in table cells that you want to be marked as headers.
If you are familiar with HTML, you can go into the text editor and change tags to tags. Row-header tags are given the scope=”row” attribute and column-header tags get a scope=”col” attribute."Tables with Two Headers," Web Accessibility Tutorials, accessed January 17, 2018, https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/tables/two-headers/. See Example 2 for how to create an accessible HTML table.
For those not comfortable with HTML, here is how you create table row and column headers in Pressbooks.
Select your table, click the Table icon > Table Properties and check “Caption.” Select the space directly above the centre of the table you created and type your caption.
An example of an inaccessible table header would be one that appears either before or after the table, with no markup connecting the title to the table.
Example 2: Accessible HTML Table Markup
<table><caption>Table 1.1 Spring Blossoms</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope=”col”>Colour Family</th>
<th scope=”col”>Bulbs</th>
<th scope=”col”>Shrubs</th>
<th scope=”col”>Trees</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th scope=”row”>Pink</th>
<td>Tulips</td>
<td>Flowering currant</td>
<td>Ornamental plum</td>
</tr>
……
</tbody>
</table>
For large data tables, it can be a good idea to add a link which will allow people to skip the content of the table. See Table 2.4 for an example.
[Skip Table] | |||
Method | Implementation | Advantages | Challenges |
---|---|---|---|
Survey | Questionnaires and interviews. | Yields many responses, can survey a large sample, data can be generalized, and quantitative data are easy to chart. | Can be time consuming, can be difficult to encourage participant response, and captures what people think and believe, but not necessarily how they behave in real life. |
Fieldwork | Observation, participant observation, ethnography, case study. | Yields detailed, accurate, and real-life information. | Time consuming, data are often descriptive and not conducive to generalization, researcher bias is difficult to control for, qualitative data are difficult to organize. |
Experiment | Deliberate manipulation of social customs and mores. | Tests cause-and-effect relationships. | Hawthorne effect, artificial conditions of research, and ethical concerns about people’s well-being. |
Secondary data analysis | Analysis of government data (census, health, crime statistics), research of historic documents, and content analysis. | Makes good use of previous sociological information. | Data could be focused on a purpose other than yours, data can be hard to find, and taking into account the historical or cultural context of texts. |
As shown, this link is best placed in a row preceding the column headers. That way, someone using a screen reader will hear the caption of the table before being given the option to skip the table.
7
In this section, we provide recommendations to guide your inclusion of accessible multimedia content.
The term multimedia refers to a variety of ways, or media, used to communicate information, such as videos, audio, animations, and slideshows.
File types used: MP3, MP4, PPT
Before you can determine what you need to do to make media accessible, you must understand what is required for different types of multimedia. Consider the following questions:
This work supports students who:
Many types of multimedia present information in a non-text manner. For students unable to use the original version of these formats, providing text as a transcript, caption, or written description gives them access.
Consider what your students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding the spoken word. A text transcript provides students with equivalent information to the audio content in a multimedia resource."Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2," W3C, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv (accessed April 17, 2018).
As you work on developing a text transcript, keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include:
Transcripts and Third-Party Videos
If you are not producing your own video resource but are planning to embed video materials from a third-party source (e.g., YouTube), be aware that not all third-party videos include transcripts. While services like YouTube technically support transcripts, not all of their contributors include them. If you select a video resource that does not already have a transcript, you will need to produce one yourself.
Creating a transcript for a third-party video might infringe on copyright, depending on how the video has been licensed. Before producing a transcript for media materials you did not create, contact the copyright holder of that material for permission to do so. (See information about using YouTube in Pressbooks in the Pressbooks Guide.)
Captions are the text that is synchronized with the audio in a video presentation. Captions are important when people need to see what’s happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time.
The work you put into creating a text transcript for a video resource can be repurposed to provide captions. Keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include in your captions:
Consider what your students would get out of a multimedia resource if they were not able to see embedded visual materials critical for comprehension. Audio descriptions are helpful if visual content (e.g., a chart or map) in a video or presentation provides important context that is not available through the audio alone."Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2.3," W3C, accessed April 17, 2018, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv.
When describing visual elements in your multimedia resources, keep in mind the following recommendations and guidelines:
Example 1
To help students fully grasp a concept that you are trying to convey in your video, you have included some contextual visual references (e.g., maps, charts, physical demonstrations of a process). However, you realize, after making the video, that the audio portion does not describe these visuals in enough detail for a student, like Jacob, to be able to access all of the concepts you intended to convey.
In this case, you would need to record an audio description of the visual material that provides enough detail so students, like Jacob, have the same content available to visual learners.
Example 2
You are recording a video or presentation that includes a chart that tracks coal production in British Columbia, and as part of the presentation you want to focus on specific data in the chart. The narrator or presenter might point to sections on the chart and say:
“As you can see, metallurgical coal projection increased by three million tonnes over these two years.“
In this case, audio descriptions would be necessary to provide the missing context to students with visual disabilities; these students cannot see the data on the chart that tells visual learners what the production figures are and for what dates. However, if the narrator or presenter instead says:
“This chart illustrates that metallurgical coal production in B.C. increased from 23 million tonnes in 1999 to 26 million tonnes in 2001,”
the visual content is conveyed through the audio and no audio description will be necessary.
8
In this section, we review how to add accessible formulas to content.
Formulas refer to math equations and science formulas.
File types used: LaTex, MathType
This work supports students who:
There are several ways to handle equations, from images with alt tags to MathML. Having access to an equation editor such as MathType or MathMagic can streamline processing and converting equations. These tools are similar to equation editors found in the Microsoft Office.
Math ML is a text-based XML (short for “extensible markup language”) designed for math equations. Browsers that support MathML are able to translate the XML into a formatted equation. Since MathML with MathJax can be rendered in many systems, including HTML, sites at Penn State, Angel and Drupal, it is considered the best choice for accessibility.
Here is information about creating and viewing MathML.
MathML may vary from system to system and the content can change rapidly.
A safe option is to create an image of an equation (or export it from an equation editor) and then insert the image into a document with an alt tag.
Note: Alt tags can be written in Nemeth MathSpeak for students who have learned that system.
View the alt tag
alt = “m equals begin fraction m sub 0 over begin square root 1 minus begin fraction v sup 2 over c sup 2 end fraction end square root end fraction”
LaTeX is a math markup language familiar to many in the science and math community. Unfortunately, it is not currently supported by screen reader technology. It is, however, fairly simple to convert LaTeX to an image or MathML in most equation editors.
To import LaTeX, follow these steps in MathMagic and MathType:
m &= \frac{m_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}
At a BCcampus user-testing session, students indicated that it would be helpful to place an audio file of the formula or equation alongside each, allowing the user to hear exactly how the formula or equation should be interpreted.
An audio element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can listen to it online here: https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/?p=57
In 2012, Portland Community College departments took a closer look at making math accessible to blind students. Read more about the math accessibility study.
Watch Math Accessibility at Portland Community College. (This video is an open educational resource.)
This chapter is a derivative of Equations: MathML, Images and LaTeX by Penn State. Penn State has provided permission to the authors to use this information under the licence of the toolkit.
9
In this section, we review the two main concerns regarding font size on the web.
Font size is the size of text visible on the screen.
This work supports students who:
There are two main concerns when working with font sizes:
Keep in mind these recommendations and guidelines:
10
In this section, we provide guidelines and recommendations about colour contrast in your textbook materials.
Colour contrast refers to the hue, lightness and saturation of text, images, and background.
File types include: DOCX, HTML, PDF, JPG, GIF
When documents or web pages do not provide enough contrast between foreground elements (e.g., text, images) and background elements (e.g., colour, watermark images), some students will have difficulty reading the content. Consider the following questions:
This work supports students who:
In order to use colour in a way that is most accessible, take into account colour contrast between text and background, and whether or not colour is used to convey information and the location of a link.
Students with low vision and/or a form of colour blindness may have difficulty reading text that does not contrast enough with the background colour selected. If the colour palette you have adopted is too subtle (e.g., white text on a pastel background; medium-grey text on a light-grey background), the contrast between your foreground and background is probably insufficient for some students.
Level AAA of the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)” requires that “the visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 7:1.”WCAG defines three levels of minimum accessibility standards: A, AA, and AAA. AAA outlines the highest level of minimum standards for web accessibility. Large text can have a lower contrast ratio (4.5:1). In addition, text that conveys no information or is part of a logo has no colour contrast requirements. See "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Guideline 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced)," WC3, accessed February 28, 2018, http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast7.html. The following image presents four different foreground/background colour-contrast examples to illustrate insufficient and sufficient colour contrast ratios.
How to Test Your Materials for Colour-Contrast Ratios
There are many online and downloadable tools available to help you evaluate colour-contrast ratios. Here are a few we have tried and like:
Links must be visually distinct from both the surrounding, non-linked text and the background colour. If you do not underline your links (or provide some other non-colour cue), you must ensure that you provide both sufficient contrast between the link and background colours and between the link colour and that of the surrounding text.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) require a:
Some students need to see light text on a dark background for it to be readable, while others require dark text on a light background. Students with low vision (like Diana) must be able to see content when it is displayed in high-contrast mode. This can be a subjective experience, based on individual student needs. We recommend testing your text- and image-based content as you go by using high-contrast mode on your own computer and making adjustments as needed.
All content items such as text, images, bullets, and table borders must be visible in both regular and high-contrast modes.
How to Test Your Content in High-Contrast Mode
To test the visibility of your content in this mode, turn on high contrast by simultaneously pressing the following keys on your (PC) keyboard:
Left ALT + Left SHIFT + Print Screen.
To turn off high contrast mode, repeat this step.
You should not rely on colour as the sole means of conveying information and instruction. If the point you are making depends on colour to be understood, you will need to edit your materials so that concepts presented in the visuals are not lost to those who are colour blind or who require high contrast between colours."Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Guideline 1.4.1 Use of Color," WC3, accessed June 7, 2018, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#visual-audio-contrast.
11
Once you have created an accessible textbook, you should provide an accessibility statement. While an accessibility statement is not required, it can be an important and useful addition to a resource for which you have worked to make accessible. This section will outline guidelines and recommendations about what to include in an accessibility statement and who the accessibility statement is for.
An accessibility statement acts as resource for those who have questions about the accessibility features of your resource. It should provide an overview of accessibility features and contact information in case there are any problems.
When writing an accessibility statement, it is important to keep in mind who the statement is for. This will guide the language you use and the type of information you include. Ultimately, the accessibility statement is for people who have disabilities or are having problems accessing your resource for whatever reason.
Hassell Inclusion’s blog post on “How to write an effective Accessibility Statement” notes that many accessibility statements ignore who will be accessing the accessibility statement or why. Instead, they make statements about the organization’s commitment to accessibility, combined with technical jargon related to web development, accessibility, and accessibility legislation. Rather than acting as a helpful resource for people with disabilities, this type of accessibility statement “read[s] like a combination of a sales pitch on how socially responsible the organization is, a technology manual, and some legal small print.”"Accessibility Statement," Hassellinclusion, accessed August 23, 2018, http://www.hassellinclusion.com/accessibility/.
Chances are, the only time people will be interested in an accessibility statement is when they have trouble accessing content in the textbook or resource. Therefore, make sure your accessibility statement provides the information readers are looking for.
Here are tips for writing a useful accessibility statement:
Here is a sample accessibility statement that you can adapt for your own purposes:
Sample Accessibility Statement
BCcampus Open Education believes that education needs to be available to everyone, which means supporting the creation of free, open, and accessible educational resources. We are actively committed to increasing the accessibility and usability of the textbooks we produce.
The web version of the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition has been designed with accessibility in mind by incorporating the following features:
In addition to the web version, this book is available in a number of file formats, including PDF, EPUB (for eReaders), MOBI (for Kindles), and various editable files. You can also purchase a print copy. Here is a link to where you can download this book in another file format. Look for the “Download this book” drop-down menu to select the file type you want.
While we strive to ensure that this textbook is as accessible and as usable as possible, we might not always get it right. Any issues we identify will be listed below.
Location of issue | Need for improvement | Timeline | Work around |
---|---|---|---|
The web version of this resource has been designed to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA. In addition, it follows all guidelines in “Appendix A: Checklist for Accessibility.” The development of the toolkit involved working with students with various print disabilities who provided their personal perspectives and helped test the content.
We are always looking for how we can make our resources more accessible. If you are having problems accessing this resource, please contact us to let us know so we can fix the issue.
Please include the following information:
You can contact us one of the following ways:
This statement was last updated on June 27, 2019.
For more information, refer to the following resources:
For sample accessibility statements, refer to the following pages:
1
2
We have grounded the “Redesign or Accommodation?” activity in student-centred Universal Design for Learning (UDL)—a framework that recognizes that we cannot design learning experiences for a specific type of student.
“Redesign or Accommodation?” also incorporates the humanizing element of student Personas, some who you will recognize from this accessibility toolkit. Each participant adopts a Persona and advocates from that student’s perspective when presented with a Scenario that is based on common or recurring components of course delivery.
In facilitated discussions, participants identify potential barriers that the Scenario presents for their Persona-selves, consider what accommodations to address the barrier would look like—and if their Persona would even qualify to receive one, and then determine if the barrier/s could be avoided entirely by applying a UDL-based redesign to the course components in question.
We have created several Scenarios for this activity, but we also recommend you try running Scenarios arising from your own practice and within your own institution against your Persona-based selves; it may help to proactively identify and address barriers before they affect your students.
Below are assorted “Redesign or Accommodation?” activity materials.
Personas
Thank you to the University of Prince Edward Island (Alex, Khaleed, Maridee, and Natalie) for developing and contributing four new persona to the “Redesign or Accommodation?” activity, a collaborative effort between UPEI’s Accessibility Services and the E-Learning Office. And thank you to Elisabeth McBrien and Heather Garcia of Oregon State University for creating an additional set of personas to facilitate accessible and inclusive course design.
3
In February 2019, BCcampus hosted a four-part webinar series on inclusive design. Each webinar focused on a different topic to address the varying ways that inclusive design practices can influence post-secondary education.
Inclusive design is never something that we complete. Nor is it something that can be perfected. It is not a finish line we can cross. Instead, it is something to practice, integrate with our everyday work, and continually revisit and reevaluate. And we hope that these webinars can act as a starting place for that process.
In the first webinar, Jess Mitchell, Senior Manager of Research and Design at the Inclusive Design Research Centre, joined us to introduce the concept of inclusive design. Jess explained that inclusive design is “design that considers the full range of human diversity” and highlighted the importance of creating adaptable and flexible resources that allow people to customize their experience in a way that works best for them.
https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_vo0at97w?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552
In week two, we looked at inclusive design in presentations. Here, we covered how to create accessible PowerPoint slides, how to present in an accessible way, and how sharing presentation materials in multiple formats can make your talk or lecture more accessible.
https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_pcdaqr83?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552
When it comes to creating open textbooks, Pressbooks is a powerful tool. And applying inclusive design practices to the OER that we are creating in Pressbooks can help ensure that the book is easy to use and navigate in all formats.
https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_hh8rsbxz?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552
In the final week, we worked on expanding our conceptions of what inaccessibility may look like to illustrate the diverse needs and barriers that students face. We offer a way to think more critically about digital and print accessibility, especially as it relates to open textbooks and open educational resources.
https://video.bccampus.ca/id/0_qglxcen1?width=608&height=402&playerId=23448552
In this webinar, we will talk about how to design OER so they are more inclusive and accessible for all students. This will include an overview of the technical considerations of digital accessibility. For example, what are the minimum technical requirements that ensure students with print disabilities can access and navigate through the resource? We will also look at how inclusive design practices can help us create educational materials that are more versatile and useful for students. For example, what does an accessible resource look like for a student with no personal computer? Or a student with a learning disability that makes reading difficult? Ultimately, students can be very different from each other, and what may work for one student may not work for another. But by designing for those differences, we can create educational materials that are more useful, powerful, and accessible to all.
4
This page contains a list of links to external resources referenced in this book for people who are using a print version. Links are listed by the chapters in which they appear and are listed alphabetically. Internal links are not included in this list.
5
“Alt Text Blunders.” WebAIM. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://webaim.org/articles/gonewild/#alttext.
“Ensure Link Text Is Meaningful within Context.” Web Accessibility. Accessed March 28, 2018. https://www.webaccessibility.com/best_practices.php?best_practice_id=1301.
“Font Size on the Web.” Accessibility and Usability at Penn State. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://accessibility.psu.edu/fontsizehtml/.
“G200: Opening new windows and tabs from a link only when necessary.” W3C. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20140916/G200.
“Accessibility Statement.” Hassellinclusion. Accessed August 23, 2018. http://www.hassellinclusion.com/accessibility/.
“Links to Non-HTML Resources.” WebAIM. Accessed March 28, 2018. https://webaim.org/techniques/hypertext/hypertext_links#non_html.
Penn State. “Links on a Web Page.” Accessibility. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://accessibility.psu.edu/linkshtml.
Penn State. “Tables.” Accessibility. Accessed March 28, 2018. http://accessibility.psu.edu/tables..
“Tables with Two Headers.” Web Accessibility Tutorials. Accessed January 17, 2018. https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/tables/two-headers/.
“Top 10 Tips for Making Your Website Accessible.” UC Berkeley: Web Access. Accessed March 27, 2018. https://webaccess.berkeley.edu/resources/tips/web-accessibility#accessible-alt.
“WCAG 2.0 and Link Colors” WebAIM. Accessed June 7, 2018. http://webaim.org/blog/wcag-2-0-and-link-colors/.
“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.1.” W3C. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#text-equiv.
“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2.” W3C. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv.
“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2.3.” W3C. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv.
“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.4.1.” W3C. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#visual-audio-contrast.
“What is UDL.” National Center on Universal Design for Learning. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/whatisudl.
6
This page provides a record of changes made to this toolkit. Each set of edits is acknowledged with a 0.1 increase in the version number. The exported files for this toolkit reflect the most recent version.
If you find an error in this toolkit, please fill out the Report an Open Textbook Error form.
Version | Date | Change | Details |
1.01 | February 2015 | Toolkit published in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. | |
1.02 | September 19, 2017 | Added a link to the Appendix: Checklist for Accessibility page. | Added a link to information describing the accessibility standards for all OpenStax books. |
2.01 | August 31, 2018 | Second edition of toolkit completed and published in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. | For details, see this list of changes and additions [Word file] made to the first edition of the toolkit. |
2.02 | May 1, 2019 | New back matter chapter titled Appendix C. | Added Inclusive Design Webinar Series recordings and PowerPoint slides. |
2.03 | Jun 27, 2019 | New theme | Changed from Open Textbook to Clark theme. |
2.04 | August 21, 2019 | Updated Images chapter and list of links. |
|
2.05 | October 1, 2019 | ISBNs added: Print and eBook. | |
2.06 | January 14, 2020 | Added new personas. | Posted a new collection of personas created by people working at Oregon State University to Appendix B: Redesign or Accommodation Activity Guidelines. |
2.07 | January 20, 2020 | Added a webinar. | Added a webinar recording called “How to Create Inclusive and Accessible OER” to Appendix C: Inclusive Design Webinar Series. |
2.08 | February 10, 2020 | Updated Links chapter. | Added a section called “Provide web addresses in Print PDF in Pressbooks.” |