Accessibility

Guidelines

As articulated in the College of the Canyons Mission Statement, our commitment to inclusion supports an environment where all students can achieve their educational goals. We strive to fully include all who engage with us by ensuring that communications and content are accessible to everyone. As a public institution that receives federal, state, and local funding, we are legally required to comply with federal laws known as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Accessibility has many components and covers a range of topics that are too vast to include here. For the purposes of this guide, we will focus on some of the most common accessibility-related issues for digital communications.

We encourage you to be mindful of accessibility across the entire range of media as communication trends, technology, and delivery platforms evolve.

Why It's Important

An estimated 13 percent of Americans – about 42 million people – have a disability. Inaccessible content excludes people just as much as steps prevent someone with a physical disability from entering a building. Inaccessible content denies them equal access to information, which many courts have ruled a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA can be complicated, but it’s intent and spirit – to ensure that those with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else – aligns with the College of the Canyons mission of inclusivity.

Section 508 and ADA

Section 508 and ADA are terms that are often used interchangeably, but they are technically separate and unique. The ADA addresses accessibility in a broader sense, while Section 508 focuses on electronic content. Section 508 is a sub-section of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that requires electronic content to be accessible to people with disabilities. It also sets accessibility standards for websites and other digital communication tools and content, known as information communication technology. Section 508 was not part of the original Rehabilitation Act of 1973 but was added in 1998 to include accessibility requirements for all information technology.

  Writing

The foundation of an accessible document is content that clearly and concisely conveys your message. This information applies not only to digital documents and content, but to all communications in its various forms.

General Guidelines

• Write clearly and use plain, straightforward language.
• Use short declarative sentences whenever possible.
• Keep content lean and relevant. More copy is not necessarily better, so eliminate unnecessary content that doesn’t get your message across.
• Use language your audience understands. Don’t get overly technical, avoid jargon, and provide definitions of institutional-specific terms that cannot be avoided.
• Acronyms and abbreviations may be ubiquitous at College of the Canyons, but they are not necessarily decipherable by external audiences. Avoid acronyms and abbreviations whenever possible. If you must use them, spell them out after first use.

  PDFs

Most Microsoft 365/Office and related applications have accessibility features and settings that, when utilized, produce accessible PDFs that can be shared electronically. 

General Guidelines

• Proper document structure utilizing headings, lists, and other element markups allows screen reader users to navigate content logically and efficiently.
• Become familiar with the application’s accessibility features.
• Images and other visual elements require alt text.
• Body text should be large enough (generally 12- to 14-point type) for people to read.
• Line spacing should be 1.5 or 2.0 whenever possible.
• Page margins should be no less than 0.5 on all sides (1.0 is preferable).
• Left-aligned text is easiest to read. Center-aligned text should be used sparingly.
• Do not write sentences in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. They are harder to read. Limit the use of all-caps to sub headers and brief headings.
• Use styles such as italics, bold, and underline selectively, and avoid using them for entire paragraphs.

 Online Design

The proliferation of online graphic design platforms has simplified the design process, making it easy for anyone to create professional-looking marketing material with predesigned templates. But users should not assume that material generated by these services meets accessibility standards. Care should be taken to ensure that the template is accessible, and that subsequent edits and additions follow accessibility guidelines and practices.

Canva

Canva is a popular online design platform at College of the Canyons. It’s also notorious for producing inaccessible documents. But that’s not necessarily the platform’s fault. It is the user’s responsibility to ensure accessibility guidelines are followed. Like the design process itself, Canva has simplified the process for checking accessibility compliance with a tool called Design Accessibility. Learn more about Canva’s accessibility features.

Color Contrast

Color contrast is key to legibility and accessibility. Whether you’re creating a PDF, an event poster, or designing a webpage, it’s important to consider readability. Color combinations, reverse type, and type overlays can be challenging from an accessibility standpoint.

Contrast Ratio

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text to achieve minimum compliance. Large text is defined as 14 point (typically 18.66px) and bold or larger, or 18 point (typically 24px) or larger.

Accessible Palettes

Color Safe provides accessible color palettes based on WCAG guidelines of text and background color ratios.

  Alt Text

All non-decorative images must be accompanied by a written description known as equivalent alternative text, more commonly referred to as alt text. Alt text is a description of an image that is read aloud to visually impaired users via a screen reader. Write alt text as if you were describing the visual scene of the image to someone over the phone. Tell them what you see, concisely.

General Guidelines

• Limit alt text to no more than 125 characters, or 250 characters for grouped images such as collages.
• Avoid filler words such as “this is a photo of.”
• If the image consists primarily of embedded text, that text should be used verbatim as the alt text.
• If an image is used to provide direction or guide the user (such as an arrow), the alt text should guide the user in the same direction.

Alt Text for Social Media

You can add alt text to images in social media posts using each platform’s edit or advanced settings feature. See instructions below.

Example

POOR: A student with her degree.
GOOD: A female student in cap and gown smiles while holding up her degree during the commencement ceremony in the Honor Grove. Fellow graduates are seated behind her.

Video & Audio

Just as alt text provides context for images, video captioning and audio transcripts help make media accessible to people with visual or auditory impairments.

Captioning

Videos must be captioned to be accessible. There are two types of captions: open and closed. Open captions are always in view and cannot be turned off, whereas closed captions can be turned on and off by the viewer. You can caption a video yourself with a free caption-editing tool, use a paid service provider, or utilize platform-specific captioning tools.

YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo

YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo support closed captioning, so open captioning is not necessary. It’s important to proofread and correct the closed caption file before publishing and promoting your video, as auto-generated caption files often contain misspellings and errors.

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn do not support closed captioning. Open captioning is required for accessibility compliance. Please refer to the specific platform for instructions on creating and loading open captions.

Transcripts

Transcripts convert audio into readable text. However, transcripts exist in a separate scrollable document instead of time-coded text in a video.

Tips

• Convert your audio to captions using a caption-editing tool or service.
• Most caption-editing tools include the ability to export a transcript.
• Transcripts should include all audio, on-screen text, and any necessary visual information.

Websites

The content management system for the College of the Canyons website will dictate most of the layout and design elements for any given page, but there are still issues you should be aware of when creating, updating, or editing a page.

• Do not write sentences in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. They are more difficult to read. All-caps are acceptable in limited circumstances, such as short page or section headers, but it’s generally best to avoid them whenever possible.
• Do not underline words unless they are hyperlinks.
• Avoid applying a bold style to words for emphasis. These can also be mistaken for hyperlinks.
• Follow a logical content hierarchy: Page Title, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Paragraph/Body Text, etc. Headings should be used in numerical order starting at the top of the page (e.g. Heading 1 cannot follow Heading 2 or 3).

NOTE – The actual naming of these elements may be different after an anticipated transition to a new content management system.

• Provide page titles, descriptions, and keywords in page settings.
• Provide appropriate alt text and titles for images.
• Provide appropriate descriptions for hyperlinks.

Accessibility Checkers

• WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
• Color Safe
• Accessibility Checker
• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

Additional Resources

• Calif. Community Colleges Accessibility
• Creating Accessible Documents
• Creating Accessible PDFs
• Creating Accessible Presentations
• Creating Accessible Meetings

• Creating Accessible Spreadsheets
• Creating Accessible Audio and Video Media
• Creating Accessible Captions and Transcripts
• Creating Accessible Social Media Posts
• Synchronized Media

• Electronic Signatures
• Creating Accessible Websites
• Developing Accessible Web Content
• Universal Design
• Creating Accessible Digital Products