June Meeting Agenda
- Announcements and check in from Anna Marie
- Accessibility Audit Overview
- Common issues
- WAVE extension
- Overview of Headings
- Work Time
- Wrap up
Accessibility Support Tools
- WebAIMs WAVE extensionThis browser extension can highlight the accessibility features of webpages, including your LibGuides. Use this to quickly see if your heading structure is properly formatting in HTML and what the alt text on your images are
Common Themes
Accessibility Audits
Checked the accessibility related checklist items across the top three most visited guides for each person in Research and Learning, here are some of the most common issues that came up
Broken links
I think this one is obvious. Links to webpages get moved around or taken down from external sites.
Vaguely named links
"here" and "form" were the most common vague names for links. Easy fix is to state where "here" is in the link name and to add the form name to the link name
Missing Alt Text/Image Description
Decorative and heading images often lacked alt text. If it's a decorative image, describe why that image was chosen and how it fits in the theme. This allows those using screen readers to appreciate your intentionality.
Heading structure
Most frequently, people skipped H3. Headings are the structural organization of your LibGuides. Use these to denote where in the outline of the content people are. If you use H3, but don't like the visual aspect, you can change the font size while keeping that html tag.
Why use headings?
Headings allow the reader to skim and quickly find the information they're looking for. Remember Ranganathan's "Save the Time of the Reader" Law of Library Science? This is a great application of that.
Headings and Screen Readers
Using the HTML tag for your heading structure allow those with screen readers to skim your guide as well. Skipping a heading level creates confusion, and using a heading to denote emphasis implies structure and more content than there is.