31 Checklist for Accessibility

This checklist can help provide an at-a-glance look at the accessibility of your OER. The other chapters of this section provide a deeper dive into accessibility in the categories below. Click the header to jump to the section of this Pressbook where these concepts are discussed in more depth. Selecting the WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion numbers in parentheses next to each checklist item will take you to the criteria listing on the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 site.

Organizing Content

• Content is organized under headings and subheadings (1.3.1)
• Headings and subheadings are used sequentially (1.3.2)
• Headings are descriptive of the content (2.4.6)
• Repeating functions are labeled consistently (3.2.4)

Images

• Images that convey information include alternative text (alt text) descriptions of the image’s content or function (1.1.1)
• Graphs, charts, and maps also include contextual or supporting details in the text surrounding the image
• Images do not rely on color to convey information (1.4.1)
• Images that are purely decorative do not have alt-tag descriptions. (Descriptive text is unnecessary if the image doesn’t convey contextual content information)

Links

• The link’s purpose can be determined by the link text and does not use generic text such as “click here” or “read more.” (2.4.4)
• Links do not open in new windows or tabs.
• If a link must open in a new window or tab, a textual reference is included in the link information.
• For citations and references, the title of the resource is hyperlinked, and the full URL is not hyperlinked.

Tables

• Tables are used to structure information and not for layout.
• Tables include row and column headers.
• Row and column headers have the correct scope assigned.
• Tables include a caption.
• Tables avoid merged or split cells.
• Tables have adequate cell padding.
  

Multimedia

• Captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content are included in the multimedia resource; this includes the audio synchronized with a video presentation. (1.2.2)
• Audio descriptions of contextual visuals (e.g., graphs, charts) are included in the multimedia resource. (1.2.3)
• A transcript is available for each multimedia resource including relevant non-speech content (1.2.3)
  • Transcript includes:
    • speaker’s name
    • all speech content
    • relevant descriptions of speech
    • descriptions of relevant non-speech audio
    • headings and subheadings

Formulas

• Formulas have been created using MathML.
• Formulas are images with alternative text descriptions if MathML is not an option.

Text

• Text and images of text have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 (1.4.3)
• Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to check contrast ratio
• Use text instead of images of text except in cases where it is essential (1.4.5)
• Font size is 12-point or higher for body text
• Font size is 9-point for footnotes or endnotes
• Font size can be zoomed to 200% (1.4.4)

Downloadable PDF version of checklist