WCAG 2.1 Accessibility Blog

MathML: Tutorials for Accessible Math Markup

Posted on August 21, 2017November 12, 2018 by Mary Gillen

$Mathematics background with formulas$

In order to create semantically accurate math equations that are accessible to all, check out MathML, the markup language that provides semantic understanding and proper syntax to assistive technologies like screen readers.

Why Not Use an Image With Alt Text?

According to info included in Princeton University’s MathML for Accessible Math Markup Tutorial, there is a good reason not to use images to display math equations:

“Whereas an alternative text description on an image of a math equation is better than nothing, it still a violation of Success Criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text. Presenting an equation as an image denies the ability of the non-sighted user to derive the understanding through semantics in an equivalent fashion to a sighted user.”

MathML Tutorials

W3C MathML Guide
Mozilla Guide to MathML
Princeton University’s MathML for Accessible Math Markup Tutorial
Daniel Scully’s Beginner’s Guide to MathML
The Connexions Guide to MathML.

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE CSS: Strong vs Font-Weight – Which to Use?

Posted on March 28, 2017November 12, 2018 by Mary Gillen

Decorative Floral Print

Use semantic markup like STRONG instead of using the CSS font-weight property.

EXAMPLE CODE:

<span style=”font-weight:bold;”>Sample Heading Text</span>

REMEDIATION:

Use the STRONG element instead of the SPAN element for bold text.

<strong>Sample Heading Text</strong>

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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HEADINGS: Two Accessibility Tips You May Not Know

Posted on March 28, 2017November 12, 2018 by Mary Gillen

An HTML H1 Tag against a purple background

TIP #1: Headings should not contain other headings.

EXAMPLE CODE:

<h1>Sample Heading Text<h1>Subtext</h1></h1>

REMEDIATION:

Remove the nested headings, or replace them with SPAN elements.

<h1>Sample Heading Text<span>Subtext</span></h1>

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TIP #2: Use HTML headings instead of applying CSS heading styles to non-headings.

EXAMPLE CODE:

<div style=”font-size:1.5em; color:#cc0000;”>Sample Heading Text</div>

REMEDIATION:

Change the element to an appropriate heading element (H1, H2, H3, etc) and apply CSS styles if necessary.

<h1 style=”color:#cc0000;”>Sample Heading Text</h1>

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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PDFs: The Importance of Figure and Image ALT Tags

Posted on March 28, 2017September 27, 2020 by Mary Gillen

To be accessible to screen readers, figures and images in PDF documents should not have blank ALT text, except for decorative images which should be marked as artifacts.

Each image should have an ALT attribute describing the picture, which screen readers can read aloud.

EXAMPLE:

Still life with colorful tulips

ALT=”Still life photo of colorful tulips in a glass vase”

ADDITIONAL NOTE: When an image contains words that are important to understanding the content, the text alternative should include those words. This will allow the alternative to accurately represent the image.

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Instant Download!

PDF Accessibility Remediation How to Fix 40 Common Errors

Whether you have limited experience with the PDF remediation process, are expanding your knowledge on how to remediate PDFs, or simply need a resource that can help remind you how to fix a frustrating error, the info provided in this e-book can help.

Download now.

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JAVASCRIPT: Avoid Using Duplicate IDs

Posted on January 9, 2017November 12, 2018 by Mary Gillen

Blue html Code Background FACT: Web pages that contain duplicate IDs can cause problems in screen readers.

If two or more elements on the same page share the same ID, this can cause problems in screen readers which use IDs for labeling controls and table headings.

It can also cause problems in JavaScript methods like getElementById and querySelector, which behave inconsistently when duplicate IDs are present.

Change the IDs so all are unique for each element.

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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LINKS: Click Here…Click Here…and Click Here Again

Posted on January 9, 2017November 12, 2018 by Mary Gillen

Click Here Buttons. 4 icons shown When you use generic text like “Click Here” or “Read More” as instructions in link text, it is confusing because it says nothing about the content that will appear once the link is clicked. Remember: link targets are read out loud by screen readers.

Another thing to note: screen readers often tab from one link to the next.

Tabbing between links labeled “click here” sounds like “click here, tab, click here, tab, click here”.

REMEDIATION: Change the link text so it is an explanation of the target content. This will make more sense when read by a screen reader.

EXAMPLE

Original Instruction Text: Click here
Revised Instruction Text: Click here to read the latest news

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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7 Ways to Make Word Documents Compliant

Posted on December 20, 2016November 12, 2018 by Mary Gillen

icon of Word document Making content accessible to people with disabilities online begins with making all types of files compliant from the start. Do you have links to Word documents on your website? If so, be sure your Word documents are compliant.

To get you started, here are seven items to test:

FAIL: Word document contains a graphic without ALT text.
PASS: Use the ‘Format Picture’ command in Word to add ALT text

FAIL: Document file name contains spaces.
PASS: Use dashes (-) to separate words in your Word file name. Keep the total number of characters in the file name between 20-30.

FAIL: Word file info is not complete.
PASS: Fill in the Document Properties for Title, Author, Subject (AKA Description), Keywords, Language, and Copyright Status.

FAIL: Document contains background images and watermarks.
PASS: Be sure the document is free of background images or watermarks.

FAIL: Color is used as a way to instruct. Colorblind visitors may not able to follow the instructions when reading your Word document.
PASS: Use an instruction description that does not depend on color.

FAIL: Table data created using manual tabs and/or spaces.
PASS: Use the Insert Table option to create tables.

FAIL: Track changes have not been accepted or rejected and turned off.
PASS: Turn track changes off before publishing your Word document to the Web.

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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Web Design to Accommodate the Dyslexic Reader

Posted on November 3, 2016December 31, 2018 by Mary Gillen

''Dyslexia'' word with wooden letters on dark background

Dyslexia is a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence. It is the most common cause of reading, writing, and spelling difficulties.

Of people with reading difficulties, 70-80% are likely to have some form of dyslexia. It is estimated that between 5-10% of the population has dyslexia, but this number can also be as high as 17%.

Here are some CSS tips to consider when designing web content to accommodate the dyslexic reader.

Beware Italics
Italicized characters can be difficult for dyslexics to read.

Column Widths
Use narrow column widths (60 to 80 characters). Tracking lines of unbroken text across a page can be difficult.

No Justification
Never use justified text. It causes “rivers” that make text difficult for dyslexics to read.

River Effect in Justified Text

Use Sans-serif Fonts
Serif fonts (like Times Roman) have “feet” at the end of the letter strokes. This can be a nightmare for dyslexics to read because the letters look like they are all connected. Use sans-serif fonts.

See the difference between Serif vs Sans-serif typefaces

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Resource: OpenDyslexic

OpenDyslexic is a new open source font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. The typeface includes regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic styles. It is being updated continually and improved based on input from dyslexic users. OpenDyslexic is free for Commercial and Personal use.
Download: http://opendyslexic.org/

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Read More Accessible Website Design Advice: Accessible Best Practice: Don’t Use Color As Part of Your Instructional Content

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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Do-It-Yourself Video Captioning Tools

Posted on November 2, 2016January 14, 2021 by Mary Gillen

closed-caption Adding captions to videos definitely adds a bit of time on to a project, and is so important for accessibility. But remember that captions can also help other folks who may not be deaf or hard of hearing.

According to Penn State University’s Accessibility Website, non-deaf beneficiaries of captions include:

anyone with defective computer audio
students needing to learn new terminology or
those whose first language is not English
viewers in a noisy room or with a sleeping roommate

Free Video Captioning Tools

Here are some free tools that can help you get the video captioning job done:

Amara >> Free, open source, online captioning tool

YouTube Captioning

MovieCaptioner >> Free 14-day, fully-functional demo version available – closed captioning software for Mac and Windows (works offline)

Caption Format Converter Tool >> Free tool that converts SRT or SBV to various caption formats

Veed’s Caption Generator >> Free tool that works on Windows or Mac computers. No software download or plugin required.

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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