6. Additional Accessibility Style Guidelines
Chapter Subtopics
How are Headings important tools for accessibility?
- Used as formatting tool
- Headings separate sections of a document
- They help all users and screen readers navigate content
- Can be used to apply in outline format
- They act as a map of the textbook or document
By default, the title of your chapter in Pressbooks will be Heading 1(H1). For best accessibility practices, you should have only one H1 on a page. We would recommend that you enable “Show Title” under “Status & Visibility” when creating your chapter.
To change the heading type of a section, highlight the text you want to change, click the drop down menu in the text editor and select the needed heading type. All body text is defaulted to “Paragraph”.
Use Headings instead of Bold, Italics, Underline or other formatting to separate sections of your chapter.
When creating your chapter, if you would like to indicate the beginning of a new section, use headings in descending rank order (beginning with H2 and descending through H6, if needed) and avoid skipping heading ranks whenever possible (don’t jump from an H2 to and H4, for example).
This is Heading 2.
This is more text that is the body of the chapter.
This is heading 3.
This is more text that is the body of the chapter.
This is heading 4.
This is more text that is the body of the chapter.
How are meaningful hyperlinks important tools for accessibility?
- They integrate well with assistive technology like screen readers
- They help users navigate the page and understand where a link may take them
- They make the page generally easier to read
When adding links in your chapter:
- Tell the user where the link is going to take them
- Avoid pasting the full URL
- Avoid using ‘click here’ as a link
- Let the link be the title of the content itself
- When linking to non-web content such as a file download, indicate this in the link description.
To insert a hyperlink into text, select the text you want to insert the link into, click the hyperlink chain symbol in the text editor, and paste the link into the text box. Alternatively, you can insert a link by highlighting text, hitting the “CTRL” and “K” keys together, and pasting the link in the text box.
Bad Example of hyperlinks in Pressbooks:
Click here to see the book that is required reading for this class.
The book that is required reading for this class is: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/marie-belloc-lowndes/the-lodger
Good Example of hyperlinks in Pressbooks:
The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes is required reading for the class.
Academic Writing Basics (PDF download) is a suggested reading for this course.
Creating Accessible Tables
Ideally, tables should be used for comparing information (like data) vs design layout. Per Yale University, there needs to be a clear relationship between the rows and columns in a table. Many sites also recommend avoiding using tables for layout purposes. When a screen reader encounters a table, it will inform the user of the number of rows and columns in the table. If there is no heading information, the information may be read out of order / context.
Indiana university, and Webaim also have some useful guides on making accessible tables. IU has a handy break down for items that should not be in a table:
When evaluating a table, keep in mind:
- Tables are best used to show and compare data.
- Tables should not be used for page formatting, like making columns or callout boxes. For accessible ways to format pages…
- Tables should not be used for lists.
- If the same information could be conveyed in a series of numbered steps, make the table a numbered list.
- If the table is a list of facts, turn it into a bulleted list.
- If the table is showing vocabulary and definitions, turn it into a definition list (will be added in future updates to this Pressbook).
- Is the overall format of the table confusing? Could the information be better represented in a list, flowchart, equation, or paragraph of text?
Additional resources and guidance
Video: Screen reader demo for using Columns (and then Rows) as headers . The video is more focused on web development, but I found that quick demo really helpful.
Licenses and Attributions
NM OER Pressbooks Accessibility Style Guide is synthesized from several sources of information:
- Two chapters, Headings and Hyperlinks, in the UW Libraries Pressbooks Accessibility Guide Copyright © by Lauren Ray; Sena Crow; and Melanie Smith, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
- OER Accessibility Review and Resources by Nicholas Humphries, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
