Maintaining Accessibility

Help keep the Harper College website as accessible as possible by following these tips:

Web pages

When pasting in content, use the "Paste as text" icon in the toolbar. This will strip out hidden code from Word, Outlook or other programs that can affect the formatting and cause accessibility issues.
Avoid using vague link text like "click here" or "learn more". The best link text is often the title of the page you're linking to. Visit the Links page to learn more.
Use properly nested headings in order, starting with Heading 2 (do not use Heading 1, as that is reserved for the page's title). Visit the Headings page to learn more.
Use descriptive alt text for images that describes who is in the image, what they're doing, and where they are. Avoid using label-like alt text. Visit Tips for Writing Alt Text.
If you are creating a table, use the Table snippet -- avoid using the table icon in the icon bar. The Table snippet contains additional code that is essential for accessibility compliance, and it includes a caption that appears below the table. Please update the caption to describe your table. Visit the Table page for more info.
Test your pages on browser and mobile devices. If you encounter any issues, submit a Web Request.

Avoid using PDFs. Instead, upload Word, Powerpoint, Excel documents. There are fewer accessibility issues and they are easier to fix for those file types vs. PDFs.
In cases where PDF is the best/only way to post a document, submit the document through the Web Request form. Please note: It may take up to 10 days for the PDF to be remediated. If the document is complex, professional remediation may be required.
All documents (including DOC, PPT, PDF, XLS, etc) must be WCAG compliant. Review Accessibility Quick Tips for Word (must login to Harper's OneDrive to access) before uploading your document or submitting it through the web request form. Run the Accessibility Checker within the program prior to uploading to the web.

All videos must be captioned. Many video hosting services provide auto-captioning. Please review these captions to ensure they are accurate.
Videos must also use audio descriptions announcing any meaningful visuals not verbalized in the videos.
Videos must have a short description that describes the content/takeaways of the video.

If you post images containing important information (such as the date/time/other details of an event), the information must also be included in the text of the post so it can be read by a screen reader.