Accessibility Checklist and Resources

About this Article

Use the accessibility checklist to ensure that you are meeting minimum accessibility guidelines for each type of content and then review the resources section to see the accessibility tools currently offered by the campus (updated 04/16/19).  A downloadable Word document is also available to save or print as a two-side, one-page document.

Checklist

Word Documents (also applies to the text editor in Brightspace)

• Use heading levels to break document into easy to navigate sections
• Make sure any colors being used have sufficient contrast
• Do not use color on its own as an indicator or signifier, especially red or green
• Use the bulleting or numbering tools to create lists
• Make use of white space and “chunk” content into sections
• Embed hyperlinks behind relevant text, unless the document will be printed.
  • Any full URLs should be presented in an abbreviated format
• Make sure the font is clear and 12 point or greater (24 point or greater for PowerPoint)

Images and Tables (Within Documents or on Brightspace)

• Images should not contain text (this cannot be read by a screen-reader)
• All images and tables must include Alt Text
• Tables must indicate the header row and first column

PDF Documents

• Must be readable with a screen-reader
• Reading order must be correct
• Tagging the document is beneficial

Audio / Video

• Any text shown on a screen must be described or read in the narration
• Anything said or heard must have closed captioning (video) or a transcript (audio)

Resources

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (Windows) or 2016 (Mac)

• Professional PDF editor
• Converts scanned documents to documents useable with screen-readers
  • OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Functionality
• Checks other types of PDF accessibility (tagging, reading order)

Microsoft Office Suite

• Microsoft has made great strides towards accessibility
  • Accessible Templates
  • Built-in accessible styles
• Accessibility Checker

Read & Write / EquatIO

• Read & Write Assistive Technology Software and Screen Reader
  • Free downloads of Read & Write are available for all SUNY New Paltz students, faculty, and staff
• EquatIO, accessible equation editor
  • Coming soon!