You can improve the accessibility of your digital materials to all users with these practices.
Accessibility involves a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities.
Providing access to content for all people is a fundamental part of digital content creation and management.
Accessibility Standards
Text Formatting for Accessibility
Text is a vital part of any web page. It makes the page findable, flexible, and accessible.
Accessible Links
Make the text of a web link understandable to all users, including those with disabilities.
Accessible Color
Keep in mind that many people have color vision deficiencies or other visual disabilities.
Accessible Images
All images placed on a page must include alt text which describes the content or purpose of the image.
Accessible Audio & Video
Our online assets allow us to engage students and other users through interactive content such as audio and video.
Accessible Data Tables
Tables are used on web pages to display data, much like a spreadsheet. The tables consist of rows and columns of interrelated data. If well-formatted, they make complex information easily accessible to all users.
Writing Web Content for Accessibility
Accessibility affects the way you organize content and guide readers through a page.
Summary of Laws
Our commitment to accessibility is based on WCAG 2.0 standards, and recommendations from the Los Rios Community College District and the State Chancellor’s office. Strategies for ensuring accessibility vary depending on the type of content being produced and, to a lesser extent, the assistive technology used to access it.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, State and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. It also applies to the United States Congress.
To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment. The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.
Under Section 504 (PDF) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal agencies, programs, and activities are prohibited from discriminating and requires reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities.
Under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, distance education courses need to be designed in an accessible way from the very beginning. Section 508 is very clear on the requirements for Web accessibility, giving very specific standards, which include examples. The point of all the standards is to ensure that materials delivered on the Web are accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.
All training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency’s mission, regardless of format, that contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be open or closed captioned.
Digital Materials Accessibility
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Website Accessibility
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