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Web Accessibility

The University of Maryland is committed to equal access to Web content. Web Accessibility covers a wide range of topics, like images, headings, link text, tables, forms, color, contrast, keyboard accessibility, PDF files, videos, etc.  Our web pages will conform to WCAG 2.0 level AA standards.

Create Accessible Content

  1. Please first carefully follow the Content Creation Best Practice
  2. You should also read this one-page great guide on How to Create Accessible Course Content provided by our university. 
  3. This DIY accessibility 6 steps graphic chart can also serve as a quick reminder. 

Tools to Test Your Content

1. Siteimprove  

NOTE: Siteimprove servers crawl our websites every 5 days. Admins and users have the ability to re-crawl a page, a group, or an entire site. Crawl duration varies depending on the number of pages on your site and the number of sites on your account crawling simultaneously.

Do NOT re-crawl the entire site. We strongly recommend that you only re-crawl your pages and groups versus re-crawling the entire site to avoid overloading the system

To create a user account: Siteimprove logo

  1. Visit the website siteimprove.umd.edu, logging in with your university directory ID and password 
  2. Please email lib-helpdesk@umd.edu
  3. Once websites have been assigned to your account, you will be granted a user access to the Siteimprove website, modules, help center and training materials.

Google Chrome Add-on

We recommend you install Siteimprove Accessibility Checker - a Google Chrome add-on. You can run a report right after you make changes in Hippo CMS (save and publish). 

2. WAVE

WebAim is a popular tool for accessibility testing. You can test and re-test your page instantly, but you can audit only one page each time. You can visit the website or install browser extensions. Installing browser extension is recommended.

When you run test report:

  1. If you only see one error on the Style tab, your page pass the audit. This should be the case for most pages without any image, table or form.  
  2. If you see more than one error, look for the small RED image indicators. Errors are most likely caused by some image missing Alt (alternative) tag or an image link doesn't have text. 

How to Fix Common Errors

We'll focus fixing WCAG 2.0 level A and AA errors. Editors: Fix Common Errors

 

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