MICA's website was built to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA.
For MICA's website to remain compliant, however, the content created for and placed on the site, must also comply with WCAG 2.0 guidelines. This responsibility lies with you, the CMS user. Here, you'll find the information you need to know to create and contribute content that is accessible.
“Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web.”
When creating or editing pages on the Web, accessibility starts with the quality of the content. Text should be easy to understand, grammatically correct, and well structured. Images and video should high-resolution, add value, and not be the only means for a user to understand a page's content.
Text Content
Your text content should:
- Provide informative, unique page titles
- Use headings to convey meaning and structure
- Use meaningful link text
- Always include meaningful text alternatives (alt text) for images
- Provide clear instructions
- Be content clear and concise
You can learn more about creating accessible text by reading "Tips for Getting Started Writing for Web Accessibility."
Images
"Images must have text alternatives that describe the information or function represented by them. This ensures that images can be used by people with various disabilities" (Web Accesibility Tutorials: Image Concepts).
Know the purpose of your images to be able to make them more accessible. Please review the following image types at "WAI Web Accessibility Tutorials: Images Concepts."
- Informative images
- Decorative images
- Functional images
- Images of text
- Complex images
- Groups of images
Audio and Video
You should always consider the possible limitations of your content consumers when creating video and audio. Limitations can include factors other than physical disabilities, such as poor/slow internet connection, outdated hardware, etc. You can learn more about inclusive design principles at Microsoft Inclusive Design.
In general, videos that contain narration and/or speaking should include text-based captioning and text-based transcripts. Audio containing speaking, singing, narration, etc., that is necessary to understand the content of the audio should also include text-based alternatives.