Web Accessibility Guide

It is important that your digital content be accessible to people with disabilities.. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance deadlines primarily affect U.S. state and local government agencies (this includes colleges, K-12 schools and public libraries), with key dates being April 24, 2026, for entities serving over 50,000 people and April 26, 2027, for smaller entities and special districts.   

Target Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA

Applies to: websites, mobile apps, web-delivered documents including PDF, video, slide decks and spreadsheets.

The core principles for WCAG include:

  • Perceivable: Text alternatives for images, including captions for audio/video.
  • Operable: Keyboard navigation, sufficient color contrast, don’t rely on color alone.
  • Understandable: Clear structure with headings, predictable navigation.
  • Robust: Compatible with assistive technology such as screen readers.

Here are a few tips to make your content accessible:

Images

All images should have an “alt” attribute. Images that contain content MUST have alternative text within that element. Alternative text should fully describe the content of the image while being as concise as possible. Decorative images (such as featured images at the top of posts or some banners) do not require alternative text. Rather, alt attributes in decorative images should have a null value (i.e., alt=””). If you need help deciding whether an image is decorative, use W3C’s alt tag decision tree at https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decision-tree.

Avoid creating images that consist of only text. There are a number of HTML-based alternatives (e.g., blockquote) available.

Audio/Video

Synchronized text must be provided for all prerecorded and live audio content in synchronized media, and an audio description must also be provided. Audio-only content must have an alternative, such as a transcript.

Colors

It is important that color is not the only visual means of conveying information, and designers should be sure that pages are usable by people with colorblindness. Text or images of text must have a sufficient contrast ratio. Large scale text (i.e., 18 points for regular text and 14 points for bold text) must have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1. All other text must have a ratio or at least 4.5:1.

Links

Link text should be descriptive, avoiding constructions like ‘link’, ‘website’, ‘click here’, etc. it is important to not put URLs in as link text. Screen readers will read out the URL one letter at a time, making the link much more difficult for people using screen readers or other assistive technology.

Structure

Headers are not used for text formatting; they’re used for logical structure. Screen readers and other accessibility devices rely on that page structure to help users navigate and make sense of the content. The first element of the page (i.e., its title) should use the H1 element. Other following sections should be headed with H2. Use H3, H4, etc. as subsections. Do not use bolded text as headings, and use the header levels in order.

PDFs

PDF files that use accessible sources like Word are accessible if the original document used clear formatting, proper headings and alternative text for images. You can also use Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker. Learn more at Adobe’s website.

Tutorials and Information

Tools