Checklist

Use the following checklist to evaluate your content for accessibility!

  • Images
    • Images containing essential information have relevant and equivalent alternative text.
    • Images that do not contain essential information or images that contain redundant information are marked as decorative.
    • Alternative text does not begin with "graphic of..." or "image of..."
  • Multimedia
    • Videos have accurate captions and transcripts.
    • Caption lines are a maximum of 45 characters and end at logical points (comma or period).
    • Visual content in videos are describes in the audio, otherwise known as an audio description.
    • Audio files have accurate transcripts.
  • Headings
    • Has a minimum of one heading level 1.
    • Follows the heading hierarchy.
    • Heading levels are not skipped.
    • Headings are unique and descriptive to its content.
  • Color Contrast
    • Normal text (11 or 12-point font) has a 4.5:1 contrast ratio with the background.
    • Large text (14-point bold or 18-point regular) and graphics have a 3:1 contrast ratio with the background.
    • Links without an underline have a 3:1 contrast ratio with nearby text and a 4.5:1 contrast ratio with the background.
    • Non-text elements such as image-only instructions, graphs, or charts have a 3:1 contrast ratio.
    • Interpreting information does not rely on color.
  • Links
    • Links have unique, descriptive alternative text.
    • Links accurately describe the information or location of the webpage or file.
    • Hyperlinks to files or webpages are natively accessible. Otherwise, there is an alternate accessible version.
  • Tables
    • Tables have appointed cell, row, or column headers.
    • Tables have visual formatting to make the headers visually apparent.
    • Complex tables have a summary describing the tables’ navigation and purpose?
  • Keyboard
    • Links and buttons can be tabbed to.
    • Visual focus indicators are present when tabbing to links, buttons, and form fields.
    • The focus order for tabbable elements logical or intuitive.
    • A “skip to content” on webpages is available when tabbing.
    • Links be accessed using the “Enter” key.
    • Buttons and accordions can be accessed using the "Enter" key or the spacebar.
    • "Scrolling" can be accomplished by using the spacebar.

Basic Checks Rubric

Use this rubric to evaluate your content for basic accessibility principles.

Criteria Good Example Bad Example
Headings are organized in an easily navigable heading hierarchy that does not contain empty or skipped heading levels.
  1. Heading 1
  2. Heading 2
  3. Heading 3
  4. Heading 2
  5. Heading 2
  1. Heading 2
  2. Heading 4
  3. Heading 1
  4. Heading 3
Lists are properly formatted with a bullet or number, and the proper list type is used. 

100 Meter Dash Results: 

  1. Mickey Mouse 
  2. Donald Duck 
  3. Goofy 

100 Meter Dash Results: 

  • Mickey Mouse 
  • Donald Duck 
  • Goofy 
Links contain descriptive link text that is meaningful in place of a long URL. Taft College or taftcollege.edu Go here 
Tables are properly formatted with row/column/cell headers. Header scopes are identified (if needed). Complex tables have accurate table captions. Tables formatted visually and semantically to indicate header cells. Tables with no styles or semantics to differentiate data cells from header cells.
Text and non-text elements have sufficient color contrast. Using text color #FFFFFF on background color #000000. Using text color #B7B7B9 on background #FBEDD2.
Color is not the only means of conveying meaningful information or emphasis. A list of edible mushrooms and another list of poisonous mushrooms.

A list of mushrooms where the mushrooms names in red text are poisonous.
Images with meaningful information contain alternative text that does not begin with "picture of" or "image of" and the information in the image is not stated in nearby text. Otherwise, the images are marked as decorative.

[Figure]

Alt Text: "A linear graph that starts at the origin and increases to 50 meters in 5 seconds."

Figure 1

Use Figure 1 to find the velocity at t=3. 

[Figure]

Alt Text: ""

Use the graph to find the velocity at t=6. 
The reading order of the document is organized so users can obtain information in a meaningful sequence.

Text about your department's employee's titles, phone numbers, and emails under a section heading labeled "Contact Information".

Text about your departments student support services under a section heading labeled "Contact Information".
All videos and audio files have 99% accurate captions or transcripts that includes proper grammar.

Please see audio and video guide.

Incorrect captioning with no punctuation, wording, timing, and spelling, etc.
Content does not flash or blink more than 3 times per second or lasts more than 5 seconds. 

GIFs that can be stopped, paused, or hidden.

GIFs that do not have a stop, pause, or hide option.
All video/audio content contains accurate captions and/or transcripts.

I publish a video with captions that:

  • Are grammatically correct
  • Are timed correctly
  • Have lines that are less than 45 characters long
  • Each line cuts off at appropriate spots (period or comma)
 I published a video with auto-generated captions.
Gifs and videos do not contain content that flashes more than 3 times per second. I post a simple gif that can be paused, stopped, or hidden from a user by using other CSS elements. I post a disco gif in my course for decoration.
Text is perceivable and understandable so that it can be interpreted, accessed, and understood by most if not all users.

This text is accessible to most if not all readers.

This sentence is not dyslexia friendly. 

THIS SENTENCE IS NOT DYSLEXIA FRIENDLY.

This sentence looks like a link to color-blind users.
Video and audio content does not auto-play for users.

I publish a video that a user must select play to play the video.

I publish a video that auto-plays when a user accesses the page so they can save time and not have to do it.
All built-in accessibility checkers pass the software's accessibility checks.

After running the accessibility checker, I received 0 errors and did a manual check, so I published the page.

After running the accessibility checker, I received 2 errors on my page, but I published it anyway.