Accessibility and inclusion: Reviewing legacy content for remediation or removal
Web accessibility has always been a requirement for UMaine websites, and ensuring your content is accessible is part of an inclusive communication strategy.
In this month’s newsletter we focus on decisions that will inevitably come up as websites are reviewed to remove Content Blocks: what to do about old content that is not adequately accessible?
What you should look out for
As you review your website to address old content and remove Content Blocks, it is important to look for the following situations:
- Images that do not have alt text
- Links that display the web address as the clickable link text
- Link text that is vague, or repeated use of the same link text for different links
- Images of flyers or posters
Images that do not have alt text
It is particularly important that all images used on a web page have descriptive text alternatives (alt text), as this allows visitors who use a screen reader to understand the content you are publishing. This alt text should be brief and convey the context of the image in your content. Read more about the importance of alt text.
Tip: You can quickly review your images using the “Media Library” section of the dashboard. Updating or adding alt text for each image in this location will make it available to you when you next use the image on a page.
Links that display the web address as the clickable link text
If you find a link in your content that displays the URL on screen as the clickable text, replace that address text with descriptive information about the web page the link references. For example, a link to the UMaine homepage should not display https://umaine.edu nor even umaine.edu. Instead, describe where the link will go: UMaine website or visit the UMaine homepage.
Link text that is vague, or repeated use of the same link text for different links
When a visitor uses a screen reader, links are read aloud in a list. Vague link text such as “PDF” or “here” are not clear to the visitor, and when a link text is used multiple times on a page it is difficult to understand which link should be selected.
Read more about accessibility with link text.
Images of flyers or posters
It is tempting to save time when putting content on your website when you have already created a flyer or poster that already features the information. Adding such an image without repeating the content as text on the web page gives a poor experience— both for visitors using screen readers as well as visitors who may be using their mobile device and its smaller screen.
Tip: Consider removing flyers or posters altogether on older content, as this may be out of date information. If the content is still important, re-type the information and format the text using the many options available in the newer Gutenberg editor.
Read more about accessibility with event flyers and posters.