Consider Accessibility at the Start

Introduction

Often accessibility is thought of as a "to-do" to be addressed at the end of the book production process. Instead, take some time to plan for accessibility with an author at the beginning. By prioritizing accessibility at the writing stage, an author can create a better structured and more inclusive publication. Considering accessibility early will also make any necessary remediation more manageable for everyone involved.

First, here's a brief introduction to digital accessibility:

"What is Digital Accessibility?Links to an external site. Links to an external site." by deque Links to an external site.Links to an external site. on YouTube Links to an external site.

In addition to providing guidance on how to make open textbooks and other OER accessible, we also want to share why we believe making content accessible is important. This is a short video on accessibility in an open education context:

"Open Dialogues: Open education and accessibilityLinks to an external site. Links to an external site." by Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia Links to an external site. on YouTube Links to an external site.

Steps Towards Accessibility

In the remainder of this section, we discuss a few important steps to take to make an open textbook more accessible. It is an introduction to accessibility, and is not intended as a comprehensive overview or checklist. For additional guidance on creating accessible open textbooks, see BCcampus' Accessibility Toolkit  Links to an external site.and WC3 Links to an external site., which provides guidance on writing, designing and developing for web accessibility.

Use Consistent Headings

Use chapters, headings, subheadings and pedagogical elements to organize content. Consistent headings signal the hierarchy of information. This allows students to clearly see how the main concepts are related. In addition, headings are one of the main ways that students using a screen reader navigate through a chapter.

Headings help to identify the hierarchical structure of a document (e.g., sections, sub-sections). Headings provide a visual cue that helps sighted readers quickly navigate through sections of a document, skimming through content until they find a section they are looking for. Similarly, headings create logical divisions in the content and allow a non-sighted user to navigate a page or document easily using a screen reader.

It's important to apply heading levels in a logical, hierarchical manner. The main title of a page or chapter, for example, is assigned the Heading 1 style. Sections of the page would have the Heading 2 style applied. Subsections falling under the main sections, would have a Heading 3 style applied. Subsections of subsections would have the Heading 4 style applied.

In the following examples we show how to make books more accessible using the Pressbooks publishing tool. However, the same principles apply to other publishing tools.

In Pressbooks, the tool will automatically apply a Heading 1 style to the text you enter as a Chapter title. The example below shows the Heading 2 style being applied in the Visual Editor to the "Absolute Location" section of this chapter in Pressbooks:

Screenshot of the Heading 2 style being selected within Pressbooks' visual editor to apply to the highlighted section text "Absolute Location."

It is not effective to use font size, bold and other features to signify headings.

Adapted from Organizing Content Links to an external site. in Accessibility Toolkit, 2nd Edition Links to an external site.. By Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray at BCcampus Links to an external site. (CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.). 

Consider Images

Context is important! Before you can determine what you need to do to make an image accessible, first ask yourself why an image is being used. What is the purpose or value the image is bringing to your textbook?

1. Does your image serve a functional purpose? In other words, is it conveying non-text content to students? If so, you should:

  • Provide a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose of the non-text material
  • Not use color as the only visual means of conveying information

2. Does your image serve more of a decorative purpose? In other words, is it primarily a design element that does not convey content? If so, you should avoid unnecessary text descriptions. The null alt attribute can be used on the <img> element, within the HTML view of a content editor, to indicate to a screen reader to ignore a decorative image. This is represented in code as alt="".

Create Alternative Text Descriptions

Consider what your page would look like if the images didn’t load. Now try writing alternative text for each image that would work as a replacement and provide the same service as the image.

As you work on developing your alternative text descriptions, keep the following recommendations and guidelines in mind:

    • Remember that alternative text must convey the content and functionality of an image and is rarely a literal description of the image (e.g., “photo of cat”). Rather than providing what the image looks like, alternative text should convey what the content of the image is and what it does.
    • For relatively simple images (e.g., photographs, illustrations), try to keep your text descriptions short. You should aim to create a brief alternative (one or two short sentences) that is an accurate and concise equivalent to the information in the image.
    • For more complex images (e.g., detailed charts, graphs, maps), you will need to provide more than a one- to two-sentence description to ensure all users will benefit from the content or context you intended to provide. In these cases, you should either provide the details in the text surrounding the image or write a longer text description that students can link to on a separate page. You should still include a short text description (one to two sentences) that tells students where they can find the details you have provided in the longer description.
    • Leave out any unnecessary information. For example, you do not need to include information like “image of…” or “photo of…”; assistive technologies will automatically identify the material as an image, so including that detail in your alternative description is superfluous.
    • Avoid redundancy of content in your alternative description. Don’t repeat the same information that already appears in text adjacent to the image.

Consider Color

Images should not rely on color to convey information.

Consider what your images would look like if they only displayed in black and white. Would any necessary context or content be lost if the color was “turned off”?

If the point you are making depends on color to be understood, you may need to edit your image so that concepts presented are not lost to those who are color blind or who require high contrast between colors.

For examples and additional information, see the Images Links to an external site. chapter in the Accessibility Toolkit by BCcampus.

Adapted from Images Links to an external site. in Accessibility Toolkit, 2nd Edition Links to an external site.. By Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray at BCcampus Links to an external site. (CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.). 

Checking for Accessibility

There are several accessibility checkers you can use to review your efforts. For example, you may want to install and run ANDI Links to an external site., the accessibility and Section 508 compliance testing tool.