Disability
Creating Universal Content
Blindness:
- Add alternative (alt) and descriptive text to graphic images to allow identification by screen-reading software
- Use consistent and predictable layouts
- Use single column text whenever possible
- Text descriptions and instructions should stand on their own, without graphics
- Synchronized audio descriptions accompany video
See also Vision
Low Vision:
- Increase the contrast between text and the background
- Place text over a solid-color background; a patterned background can make text harder to read
See also Vision
Color-blindness:
- Avoid use of color only to communicate meaning
- Ensure that the software/application will run in monochrome mode
- Use variations in contrast and brightness in addition to color variations
- Choose elements that increase visual contrast, rather than color, e.g. using texture
- Keep the overall contrast high
- Avoid using orange, red, and green in your template and text
Hearing Impairments:
- Provide all auditory information visually
- Ensure that all visual cues are noticeable, even if the user is not looking straight at the screen
- Support ShowSounds, a feature that allows the user to assign a visual and caption for each auditory event
- Provide captions and transcripts
See also Hearing
Physical Disabilities:
- Avoid timed responses or when they cannot be avoided, lengthen the time allowed for a user to respond
- Allow the user to take advantage of accessibility features built into the operating system
Language or Cognitive Disabilities:
- Allow all message alerts to remain on the screen until dismissed by the user
- Make language and instructions as simple and straightforward as possible
- Use simple and consistent layouts
Dyslexia:
- Give the ability to select their preferred font
- Use consistent layouts and formats
- Use plain, uncomplicated backgrounds behind text
- Avoid flashing, moving or animated text
- List hyperlinks at the end of the relevant paragraph or section instead of within the general text
See also Learning
Adapted from Best Practices in Online Content Accessibility by Disability by Xavier University's Instructional Design and Digital Media Department. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.