{"id":737,"date":"2024-08-14T12:52:21","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T12:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cdci.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?page_id=737"},"modified":"2025-01-22T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T16:42:07","slug":"10-basic-principles-of-digital-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cdci.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/services\/current-cdci-projects\/accessibility-services-resources\/basic-accessibility-guidelines\/10-basic-principles-of-digital-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Basic Principles of Digital Accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Basic Digital Accessibility Regardless of Platform<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Download this page as a checklist<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have a handy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/Center-on-Disability-and-Community-Inclusion\/A11y\/basic%20principles\/CDCI-10-point-checklist-for-digital-accessibility.pdf\">checklist in .pdf format<\/a> of 10 basic ways to make documents more accessible, regardless of platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. FONTS: TYPE AND SIZE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Minimum size for body text should be 14 points or larger. <\/strong>Ask you audience for feedback.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use easy-to-read fonts.<\/strong> These are: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Calibri, or Times new Roman.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No paragraphs of italic text. <\/strong>Italic text should be used to emphasize words or short sentences, but can be really difficult to read as a paragraph.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. COLOR: CONTRAST AND MEANING<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/webaim.org\/resources\/contrastchecker\/\">Use the WebAim color contrast checker.<\/a><\/strong> 3:1 should be the minimum for large text, icons, and graphics. For smaller text, like body text, bump it up to 4.75:1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t use color to indicate meaning.<\/strong> \u201cPush the purple button to get in touch\u201d is meaningless if you can\u2019t see purple.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Test your designs in grayscale. <\/strong>Some people can&#8217;t see color at all, and still need your information. If you&#8217;re on a Mac, use the &#8220;Color Filters&#8221; accessibility tool to review, or upload your document to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toptal.com\/designers\/colorfilter\">Toptal color-blindness simulator<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. HEADINGS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Headings are Title, H1, H2, H3.<\/strong> You use these instead of simply making the title of a page, section, or paragraph larger, or bolding it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>They help screen readers and keyboard navigation in scanning a document.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>You can still bold or italicize your headings<\/strong> &#8212; as long as they also have heading markup (Title, H1, H2, H3, etc).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. ALT-TEXT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>All photos, icons, and figures should have alt-text.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alt-text should be 1-3 descriptive sentences. <\/strong>Focus on the main point of the image. You don&#8217;t need to describe the color of the flowers on the wallpaper &#8212; unless you&#8217;re creating an ad for wallpaper. You do need to describe how many people are in the image, who they are, and what they&#8217;re doing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>If your image shows people, indicate skin, hair and eye color.<\/strong> Also consider basic dress and hairstyle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Haben Girma describes how important it is that alt-text <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/gCcsp7BUsCk\">includes BIPOC people<\/a> (video). <\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Don&#8217;t be afraid to include color terms.<\/strong> Many blind and low-vision people appreciate being told about colors, such as &#8220;dark green forests&#8221; or &#8220;woodpecker with vibrant orange wings&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. COLUMN WIDTH<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Try to use columns whenever practical.<\/strong> People\u2019s eyes get tired reading a full-width page \u2014 especially on screens. This is why newspapers publish in columns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Do not justify your text to both sides of the page.<\/strong> Left-justify any text written in a language that reads left-to-right. Right-justify text in languages that read right-to-left.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. CAPTIONS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>All videos need captions.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Automated captions are only 70% accurate, on average. <\/strong>They are still better than nothing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Edited captions are kindness.<\/strong> And if you&#8217;re posting a video on YouTube, they&#8217;ll help your search-engine optimization (SEO).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. TRANSCRIPTS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>All podcast episodes need transcripts.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Yes, even short ones.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Automated transcripts are better than nothing. <\/strong>But edited transcripts are not only better accessibility, they too will help boost your search-engine optimization. Help people find and access your content!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8. CHOICE OF FILE FORMATS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Not everyone has Microsoft Word.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Not everyone loves a .pdf. <\/strong>And .pdfs are frequently inaccessible unless you spend time ensuring full accessibility.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Webpages should be included as a choice. <\/strong>Lots of people have installed browsers, browser settings, and\/or stylesheets that help them with reading and consuming webpages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Some people like video, some people cannot stand it. <\/strong>All video should have a text alternative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">9. LINK FORMATS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Underline links. <\/strong>Don\u2019t underline any other text for emphasis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Link text should be a different color than body text.<\/strong> Try to avoid making other text a random color for emphasis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t say \u201cclick here\u201d. <\/strong>Instead, provide context. Like: 15 Golden Rules for Links.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>3-4 words minimum link length.<\/strong> This helps people who have limited mobility in their fingers, hands, and wrists have a larger target to aim for.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No surprise downloads. <\/strong>All links are assumed to go to webpages unless you say otherwise. Tell people about (.pdf), (.xlsx) and (.docx).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">10. NO FLASHING OR BLINKING<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Flashing and blinking items, such as animations, can cause migraines or seizures for some viewers.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Viewers should be able to stop and start animations. <\/strong>Nothing you include &#8212; animations, videos, audio, ads &#8212; should be set to auto-play.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Absolutely nothing that moves faster than three blinks per second. <\/strong>This is the generally accepted threshold for causing seizures and migraines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basic Digital Accessibility Regardless of Platform Download this page as a checklist We have a handy checklist in .pdf format of 10 basic ways to make documents more accessible, regardless &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":717,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-737","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>10 Basic Principles of Digital Accessibility - UVM Center on Disability &amp; 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