Web Accessibility Standard Reference: WCAG 2.0

WSU’s Executive Policy 7 (EP7) complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level AA.

Before a user is permitted to edit a Finance and Administration page they must first complete the online ADA training.
– WSU Executive Policy 7 (EP7) and Business Policies and Procedures Manual (BPPM) 85.55

 

 

These guidelines are arranged into four major principles.

Perceivable

Users can recognize content, even if not using all of their senses (e.g. sight).

Operable

Users can access the content across a range of devices (e.g. with a touch screen).

Understandable

Content is readable, understandable, and appears and functions in consistent ways.

Robust

The web design and code are compatible with future user tools (e.g. assistive technology).

Headings

Using a clear heading structure helps improve the user experience by providing a consistent look for a site, offering a hierarchical structure for web page content, and by providing guidance for users to easily navigate and quickly scan (either visually or with a screen reader) for the information they seek on a website.

Common Accessibility Errors

• Bold text and/or larger text size is used to represent a heading instead of using the heading tags
• Heading levels are skipped
• Heading levels are out of order
• There are multiple Heading 1

Captions and Transcripts

To ensure web accessibility and to allow all users access, website audio content (e.g. podcasts, spoken feedback, etc.) requires a transcript and website videos require synchronized closed captioning.

Common Accessibility Errors

• A transcript is not provided with audio content.
• Captions are not included with a video.
• Captions are not accurately synced with a video.
• Captions have many spelling and/or grammar errors.

Alternative Text

To ensure website accessibility, all images, graphs, or diagrams must have alt text. However, include an empty alt text attribute for images and graphics that are purely decorative.

Common Alt text Errors

• The file name (e.i. “12345_img12.jpg”) of the image is used for the alt text.
• “Image of” or “Photo of”, etc. is used as part of the image description.
• “Photo” is the only alt text used to describe an image; alt text is not descriptive.
• The image caption and the image alt text are the same.
• The image photographer or copyright information is the description for the alt text instead of the caption.

Color and Color Contrast

To ensure website accessibility by a variety of users, the use of color must not be used alone to convey important information or to demonstrate emphasis. There also needs to be sufficient color contrast between the foreground and background color.

Common Accessibility Errors

• Color alone is used to convey meaning
• Insufficient color contrast

Making Links Accessible

If web page links are not clearly identified or do not make sense, the user may overlook them and/or not know the destination of the links before they are selected.

Common Accessibility Errors

• Website URLs are used for link text
• Links are not descriptive
• Links going to the same destination are used more than once on a web page
• Keyboard users do not know where they are on a web page, because links do not have link focus indicators
• Links do not have enough color contrast between the background color and/or the surrounding text
• Additional visual cues (e.g. color change) are not provided when a link is hovered over or receives focus