Accessibility for OER

25 Checklist for Accessibility

This checklist can help provide an at-a-glance look at the accessibility of your OER.[1]The other chapters of this section provide a deeper dive into accessibility in the categories below. 

Organizing Content

☐ Content is organized under headings and subheadings.

☐ Headings and subheadings are used sequentially (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2).

Images

☐ Images that convey information include alternative text (alt text) descriptions of the image’s content or function.

☐ 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.

☐ 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 is meaningful in context and does not use generic text such as “click here” or “read more.”

☐ 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 (e.g., [NewTab]).

Tables

☐ 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

☐ A transcript is available for each multimedia resource including relevant non-speech content.

  • Transcript includes:
    • speaker’s name
    • all speech content
    • relevant descriptions of speech
    • descriptions of relevant non-speech audio
    • headings and subheadings
    • 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.
    • Audio descriptions of contextual visuals (e.g., graphs, charts) are included in the multimedia resource.

Formulas

☐ Formulas have been created using MathML.

☐ Formulas are images with alternative text descriptions if MathML is not an option.

Font size

☐ 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. Adapted from BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit. Authored by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, and Tara Robertson. Provided by BCCampus. Located at https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/. Licensed under CC BY: Attribution

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

OER Primer for Iowa Regents Institutions Copyright © by Mahrya Burnett; Abbey Elder; and Anne Marie Gruber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.