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Accessibility Guidelines for Web Content Providers

This page is for Web Content Providers and should be used as a checklist before every website submission.

The federal government required all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to be both Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 A/AA compliant by Jan 18, 2018. Listed below is a checklist required for submission to the GNTC website with the most commonly found issues. If you have any questions about making your content accessible, please email Access at GNTC.

Step 1: Formatting Guidelines

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.

  • 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 alighned
  • 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.)
  • Underlines - Do not underline anything. Underlines are reserved for links and are automatically formatted in Office products.
  • Bold/Italic - Limit using Bold and Italic to less than two words.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Click Here's - Avoid all links that are non-specific such as click here, continue, read more, etc.
  • 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"
    • Also, note - while our previous practice has always been to open all external links and PDFs in a new window (target="_blank"), this is no longer the best practice. 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.
  • 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. 
  • Spaces - Excess spaces are not allowed and cannot be used for alignment purposes—only one space after punctuation.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Lists - Bulleted lists are an excellent alternative to tables. Make sure to capitalize the first letter used in a list.
  • 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.

Step 2: 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 Office - Click File, on the Info page 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 any issues that the Office Check Accessibility feature found. Instructions will be displayed with each error. Save the file as a PDF. Make sure to follow the naming standards if submitting for the website. (See below) Then check the document in Acrobat.
  • Second in Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader) - Create and Verify PDF Accessibility
    • 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.
    • To make the document accessible click Tools - Action Wizard - Make Accessible
      • You must run the Action Wizard in order to easily set several items that will throw errors in the accessibility report that TCSG runs.
    • Once you have corrected issues from the Action Wizard recheck for accessibility: click Tools - Accessibility - Full Check
    • *** 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, first off - 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 Checkers
    • 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.
    • PAVE - A file can also be uploaded to PAVE and checked for accessibility. PAVE automatically corrects most issues. However, you may not know what issues it corrected and you will need to make these changes to your Office (primary) document.

Check External Links for Accessibility

  • If you link to an external page, the following items must happen
    • First, the link must be checked against WAVE
    • If there are 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.
    • Email the letter to them and CC Brittany Elrod and Gina Whaley on this document.
    • Once we have received the email, it is then safe to post the link.

Videos

  • If submitting a video for the web as code, such as: <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XPawdDeirPg?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
    • It will need to have a title attribute added, such as: <iframe  title="Public Safety Training Video" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XPawdDeirPg?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>

Step 3: 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 name 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, 'http://www.gntc.edu/uploads/public_semester_schedule.pdf' is the location of our Schedule. So the PDF must be named 'public_semester_schedule.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.

Issues

If you have any questions or issues about ADA compliance, please email Access at GNTC.

Read Me

Do not print this page. Instead, keep a check on this page regularly as it is updated frequently. This is a process for all, as rules change regularly, and we are doing our best to provide you with the most up-to-date information in the easiest way possible.
Page last updated: 01-08-2023