ADA Compliance Checklist for Online Content
Estimated Reading Time: 2 Minutes2017 |
ADA Compliance Checklist for Online Content
For all online materials reasonable accommodations must be made to web content to maximize student accessibility in your course and comply with federal ADA requirements.
Each Course Component listed below should be fully addressed. Your course may not contain all components, but those that are used in your course will need to be accessible to all students. Instructors bear the responsibility of ensuring subsequent changes to approved courses continue to meet these and other DEC and ADA standards. Contact IT and/or Disability Services for assistance.
Course Component |
Instructor will |
YES |
NO |
N/A |
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Use descriptive text for hyperlinks (i.e., “Read Syllabus” instead of “Click here”) |
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Links |
Ensure that all links are valid, course appropriate, and unbroken |
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Links |
Include the file extension in links to download files (i.e. "Syllabus (doc)" or "Worksheet.xlsx" |
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Links |
Avoid using patterned buttons |
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Links |
Remove or hide any buttons and tools that are not used in the course |
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Use a san-serif type face (i.e. Arial, Century Gothic, Helvetica, Trebuchet, Verdana) with non-justified text of no less than size 12 type for easy readability |
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Text |
Use one font throughout the site |
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Text |
Use Styles function to insert headings and other important navigational structures in documents |
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Text |
Avoid using font color as exclusive method to convey meaning |
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Text |
Avoid harsh color combinations, such as yellow-blue or red-green combinations |
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Text |
Avoid overuse of all CAPS, bold or italics |
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Text |
Avoid underlining words, which a screen reader can mistake for a navigation link |
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Text |
Use high contrast between text and background |
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Text |
Avoid extremely bright colors as a background color. Do not use patterned backgrounds or watermarks across document |
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Text |
Avoid using PDFs |
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Text |
Avoid the use of text boxes to set off content; screen readers will not detect content |
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Provide textual summaries of data tables above table and make certain “Header Row” is checked in Table Tools to identify headers |
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Tables and Columns |
Avoid use complex tables with split cells when possible |
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Tables and Columns |
Do not use Tabs to create columns and tables; this will not read correctly with screen readers |
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Ensure all images are clear |
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Images |
Ensure all images have alt texts/long descriptions attached to them |
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Images |
Avoid animated or blinking images, text, or cursor, which can cause seizures for some people |
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Images |
Provide a description of the image in the question or answer text if used in an assessment |
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Ensure audio quality is clear |
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Audio |
Provide a written transcript with all audio files |
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Ensure video quality is clear |
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Video |
Provide closed-captioning and accompanying text-based transcripts for all videos |
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Other Tools |
Create accessible MS-Word, PowerPoint, PDF documents and use document Accessibility Checkers |
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Additional accessibility information instructions available: