Structure
- Content is organized with heading/section titles
- Content is organized semantically and reads from top to bottom
- All headings are semantic (heading levels aren’t skipped. For example, H1, H2, H3, H3, H2)
- Page title describes the page and is no more than 150 characters
For tips with WordPress, go to Using accessible theme blocks in WordPress.
Text
- Headings are used to describe and organize content
- Text is clear and descriptive, following standard formatting conventions
- Text is not underlined
- When applicable, text uses strong tags instead of bold tags
- Bulleted and numbered lists are used when applicable and appropriately
Images
- All images have a descriptive alternative text
- Images do not contain text (images of flyers should have a full-text alternative clearly present on the page)
- Linked images use alt text to describe what page the image links to.
For additional information, go to Images and Media and Using flyers on the web
Tables and graphs
- Tables are only used when absolutely necessary to display data
- Tables are not used for layout or formatting
- No rows or columns are merged
- Tables and graphs have a clear text alternative describing the purpose of the content
- Tables are made using Tablepress (university WordPress sites only)
For tips, go to Creating Accessible Data Visualization.
Links
- Link text is clear and descriptive for the user
- Link text makes sense when read out of context (avoid generic text like “Click here” and “Read More,” as it doesn’t provide any information to the user)
- Links are not just page URLs
- All links have been tested and are working as intended
Video and audio media
- Media has a text alternative available on the page.
- Media does not rely on video or audio alone to present essential information
- Videos have captions and audio descriptions available (auto captions have been reviewed and edited for clarity)
- Videos and Audio have transcripts available
- Speakers in video/audio clearly identify themselves (this provides clarity when multiple speakers are present)
Details available at Video and Audio Content accessibility resources.
PDFs
- PDFs have a web alternative (unless absolutely necessary, don’t publish PDFs on the web. Determine if PDFs are really needed for your site)
- PDFs have been reviewed and remediated using an accessibility checker (Adobe Acrobat, Commonlook PDF)
Additional resources are available on the Publishing Documents webpage.
Quality assurance review
- No empty elements are on the page (no empty titles, links, or headings)
- All links are working as intended
- Content has been reviewed and tested before publishing
- Use DubBot or the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
More information
Contact the Web Accessibility Team for questions or additional information about any checklist item.