Navigation
Links
Presentations
Alt-text
Links
Links should be visually distinguishable from other text.
Use underline text to visually distinguish hyperlinks and not for emphasis.
Don’t underline text that is not a link for the purpose of emphasis.
Use bold text, italics, or both to show emphasis.
The text for the link should describe what happens when it is clicked.
Avoid text that simply says “click here.”
- Helpful: “learn more about accessibility” or “digital accessibility help with ECRT”
- Not helpful: “click here” or “follow this link” All links should have unique names, so it is obvious they lead to different destinations
Use hyperlinks for digital texts.
Write out the url for print texts.
Headings
Headings help to organize information, creating an outline for a page. Use the built in features of your software to tag them hierarchically.
Presentations: Slide Titles
Should be concise
Should relay meaning for easy navigation
Should be unique. No two slides should use the same title.
If you have lots of information that falls into one category, use “1 of 2” or “continued.”
Documents: Google Docs
Headings can be added and updated in Google Docs Apply the pre-existing layout, or update headings at this level to match
To format your headings:
- Select the text you want to change.
- Click Format. Paragraph styles.
- Click a text style: Normal text. Title. Subtitle. Heading 1-6.
- Click Apply text style.
Slidedecks
Layout tips for presentations
Leave blank space at the bottom of your slides.
This allows room for captioning or chat pop-ups to appear.
If you will have your camera on, consider where it may appear on the screen.
You can build whitespace into your slides to prevent overlap.
Enumerate items on a slide based on reading order.
Slide animations
Avoid transitions and animations that spin and/or flash.
WCAG 2.1 standards suggest that content “not contain anything that flashes more than three times in any one second period.”
Image descriptions
When you are presenting, verbally describe all images that appear in your slides. Describe the information that you are trying to communicate to your audience. Thinking about how you might describe an image in a presentation could be a starting point for how you think about alt text.
- Example 1: “This slide includes various news media headlines such as…”
- Example 2: “Our research team observed a class session where students read aloud their personal narratives in front of the class, and I have included a photo here.”
- Example 3: “I chose an image of a woman meditating in a sunny field of flowers to begin our conversation about visioning.”
- Avoid: “As you can see…”
Alt-text for images and graphics
Alt-text (alternative text) is a concise text description of an image. Alt-text is read by assistive technology such as screen readers. It also displays in place of an image if the image fails to load.
Focus on purpose, not appearance.
Ask yourself, why are you sharing this image? What does the image add?
Be concise but complete.
Ask yourself, how would you describe this image to someone over the phone? Try to keep your alt-text to under 125 characters in length.
Describe information, not decoration.
If the image adds no essential meaning, use empty alt (alt=””) so it’s ignored by assistive technologies
Adapt to context
The same image can need different alt text in different contexts. Describe what’s relevant to that specific page, post or message.
AI-generated alt text may be inaccurate to the purpose or context of your image and will likely need to be modified depending on what you are trying to convey with the image.