Close
I Am A...
MyGNTC Okta Login Financial Aid Apply Now Phone 1-866-983-4682 Request Info
Home / Faculty & Staff / Accessibility Guidelines
Accessibility Services Accessibility Services

Accessibility Guidelines

for Web Content Providers

GNTC Website Accessibility Policy and Procedure

GNTC Website Accessibility Policy

In accordance with federal requirements, all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) must comply with both Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 A/AA). As of January 18, 2018, all digital content on the GNTC public website must meet these accessibility standards.

Document Accessibility Requirements

  1. Internal Documents: All documents created by GNTC for publication on the GNTC website must be accessible. Documents that do not meet accessibility requirements will be returned to the department requester for necessary revisions.
  2. Support for Compliance: The GNTC Accessibility Services Department is available to assist departments in formatting their documents to ensure compliance with accessibility guidelines.
  3. External Documents: If a document intended for the GNTC website is not accessible and originates from an external agency, the content requester must make a good faith effort to obtain an accessible version from the providing agency. A letter will be provided to the requester to send the providing agency requesting an accessible version of the document. Email the letter to them and CC Brittany Riddle and Gina Whaley on this document.
  4. Alternative Text Versions for Documents: If an accessible version of an external document is not available but is required for the GNTC website, a usage statement must be provided indicating that an accessible document may be available upon request. Additionally, the requester must prepare and provide a text-based version of the document formatted according to accessibility guidelines at the time of submission.
  5. External Links: If a link intended for the GNTC website is not accessible and originates from an external agency, the content requester must make a good faith effort to contact the website owner to request that the issues be corrected. A letter will be provided to the requester to send the providing agency requesting an accessible version of the document. Email the letter to them and CC Brittany Riddle and Gina Whaley on this document. If they do not respond, we have done our part and it is documented appropriately. Once the email is received, it is then safe to post the link.

By adhering to these policies, GNTC ensures that its website remains accessible to all users, in compliance with federal accessibility standards.

This page should be used as a checklist before every website submission.

Required Formatting Guidelines

Listed below is a checklist required for submission to the GNTC website, with the most commonly found issues. Keep formatting as basic and as simple as possible. Accessibility issues with formatting may not show up when checking your document in Word or Adobe Acrobat Pro, so the document will need to be manually checked for formatting issues.

  1. Font – Calibri 12 pt. (or above) font.
    • Note: Please do not use multiple fonts. The website should match as a whole and look like all documents came from the same person. Please use the site’s standard Calibri font.
    • Headings should be left-aligned
  2. Caps – Do not use all capitals unless it is an acronym. (Hint: If you have a page in all capitals, you may be able to use Shift + F3 or Shift+Fn (F Lock) + F3 to toggle between upper and lower case on the selected text.)
  3. Underlines – Do not underline anything. Underlines are reserved for links and are automatically formatted in Office products.
  4. Bold/Italic– Limit using Bold and Italic to less than two words.
  5. Styles – Use Office basic styles such as Title, Heading 1, etc., instead of changing things individually (like font, size, bold, etc.). Headings should all be left-aligned. Avoid using center alignment.
  6. ALT Text– Every picture, text box, etc., must have ALT text. Right-click on the image and select Format Picture. In the Format Picture box on the right, click Layout & Properties. Under Alt Text, type a very short description. If more information is needed, add it to the Description box. Also, the ALT text cannot match the image file name.
  7. Titles– Every document must contain a title. In Office, click File. On the Info page, right column, click Add a Title. (This is not a title that you can see on the document.) Immediately click Save after adding the title. Also, note that this name should be short to make it accessible.
  8. Click Here’s– Avoid all links that are non-specific, such as click here, continue, read more, etc.
  9. Hyperlinks– You cannot list the URL and have it linked. The text must be descriptive and short that you add a link to. For example:
    • Not acceptable: “Visit www.gntc.edu for more information”.
    • Acceptable: “Visit GNTC for more information”
    • Please do not set a target as all pages should open on top of the original.
    • Do not list identical links on the same page/document. Redundant links are flagged as accessibility errors.
    • Link text that is too long also flags as an error.
    • Links to pages outside of the GNTC domain require documentation to be on file. See the “Check Links for Accessibility” section below
    • Hyperlinks are automatically colored in Word by default. Do not change or edit this default coloring.
  10. Email links – an email address cannot be listed outright, but instead must be linked from the person’s name. See ‘Hyperlinks’ above.
    • Not acceptable: “Email admissions@gntc.edu for more information.”
    • Acceptable: “Email Admissions for more information.”
    • Do not use a ‘mail-to’ for anyone listed in the GNTC directory. If this person is listed in the directory, their name should link to their directory page and not their email address. Remember that using an email address opens the person up to having their email address harvested and will increase their SPAM.
  11. Spaces – Excess spaces are not allowed and cannot be used for alignment purposes—only one space after punctuation.
  12. Color – keep to basic black and white if at all possible. Do not use red text, as it is difficult for color-blind individuals to read. Any color used outside of black and white must be checked with the Colour Analyzer. This includes highlighting.
  13. Tables – Please avoid them! Tables can be very difficult to make easily accessible. If possible, remove the data and restructure the content to avoid using tables. Table data can often be put in a list for a better result than the table. Tables should never be used for alignment purposes.
  14. Lists – Bulleted lists are an excellent alternative to tables. Make sure to capitalize the first letter used in a list.
  15. Flyers – Flyers are notorious for accessibility issues since they are designed to be eye-catching and pretty. While this is great for printed items that do not fall under the same restrictions, flyers should be avoided on the website. If you still need your flyer online, you will need to create two versions: one for print and one for online, that is accessible following these Accessibility Guidelines.

Check Documents for Accessibility

Check through your document in Office. Your office document should be used as the primary document where you make all changes. Save it as a PDF in Office. It is necessary to use more than one checker to check for errors. No one checker will identify all issues! Also, remember that best practices may not show up as errors, however, they need to be corrected too.

First in MS Word

  • First, in the Microsoft Office document, click File, and on the Info page, find the Title line under Properties. Click in the field and add a short title.
  • Next, beside Inspect Document, click Check for Issues. Select Check Accessibility. On the right-hand side, you will receive a list of the inspection results. Correct all issues (including any spaces) that the Office Check Accessibility feature found. Instructions will be displayed with each error. Save the file as an Adobe PDF. Make sure to follow the naming standards if submitting for the website.
  • This is to be used as your Master Copy. All corrections are to be made in your original Office document.

Second in Acrobat Pro

  • Next, use Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader) – If you do not have Acrobat Pro, please get in touch with someone with a license to assist you with running these scans. You can also submit a request for a quote so that you may purchase an individual license. An annual subscription license is less than $140. However, if you are a Web Content Provider who submits PDFs, you should purchase a license.
  • To make the document accessible click All Tools – Use Guided Actions– Make Accessible. (This was formerly called Action Wizard)
  • You must run this in order to easily set several items in the background, such as language, that will throw errors in the accessibility report that TCSG runs.
  • Once you have corrected issues from this check, recheck for accessibility: click All tools – Prepare for accessibility – Check for accessibility
  • *** Important! *** If you are asked to make corrections to issues in your PDF, you need to go back to the original office document to make the changes and then go through the accessibility process again. If you make changes in your PDF, you are not changing your original for the next time. Second, you are leaving behind rouge code – that you cannot see – that causes issues and accessibility errors.

Additional Checks

  • Manual checks that need to be run on the corrected PDF.
    • Reading Order – Please use a free text-to-speech reader that will talk through a page to test to see if it reads in a logical flow. This is especially important when using tables, forms, or anything other than basic text in a paragraph.
    • Color Contrast– To manually check the color contrast, you can download and run CCA, the Colour Contrast Analyzer.

Check External Links for Accessibility

The following steps must be taken when using a link outside of GNTC’s public website, whether on a page on in a PDF.

Please note: For our new website, all external links will need to be rechecked and resubmitted.

  1. First, the link must be checked against WAVE
  2. If there are any errors or alerts, you will need to contact the website owner to let them know and see what they will do about correcting the issues. This has been simplified in the WCAG Letter template.
  3. Email the letter to them and CC Brittany Riddle and Gina Whaley on this document. It is fine if the company/website does not reply to you. With this letter on file, we have done our part and it is documented appropriately.
  4. Once we have received the email, it is then safe to post/submit the link

Website Submission

For GNTC website submission, please keep the following in mind:

  1. Make sure you have run all accessibility checkers and that all issues have been corrected.
  2. You must submit each document in a separate Support Request.
  3. The document must be saved as a PDF.
  4. Most importantly, the document must be named exactly as it is online. No capitals, no spaces. This is not the text of the link on the page. (To find out what the filename is, pull up the document online, and look at the URL – the filename is what comes after the last forward slash. For example, https://www.gntc.edu/wp-content/uploads/application-for-graduation.pdf is the location of our graduation application. So the PDF must be named “application-for-graduation.pdf”.)
  5. In the request, copy and paste the URL of the link to the file or page that you are replacing/updating.
  6. Keep in mind that we will try our best to accommodate all requests, however, not all requests will be completed as submitted. The overall website design, structure, and accessibility will take priority.

Remember that accessibility requirements can be updated at any time, and we are required by law to comply.

Please submit a Support Request from campus for more information. If you have any questions or issues about ADA compliance, please contact Brittany Riddle.

Back to Top