Digital Accessibility and Inclusivity at CityLAB
“When it comes to digital accessibility, Mohawk College is propelling our community forward with the Accessible Media Production program and the Accessibility Research Lab. ”
How can we be more inclusive: in our projects, in our programming, and in our outreach? A good first step is ensuring digital accessibility
Inclusivity is a top priority at the City of Hamilton, and holding ourselves accountable to that priority is key. When our team at CityLAB realized we were not meeting the required guidelines to digitally comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), we dug in to learn as much as we could about making necessary changes. Getting started was easy enough, but as the updates became more technical we looked to our network for guidance and expertise.
Hamilton is privileged to be home to 3 post-secondary academic institutions. The benefits that come from these institutions trickle down into programs, community initiatives, and the fabric of our city. When it comes to digital accessibility, Mohawk College is propelling our community forward with the Accessible Media Production program and the Accessibility Research Lab.
In the Fall of 2020, we worked with Mohawk’s Accessible Media Production program to address digital accessibility and to look at the ways our website and digital services were falling short. Digital accessibility describes the ability of a website, online services, and digital presence to be easily used and navigated by all users, including persons living with disabilities. Jennifer Curry Jahnke, who leads the program at Mohawk, connected us with her student Kristen Mommertz for the project.
Over the course of the 2020-2021 school year, Kristen worked to complete a full audit of our website, digital presence, and online services. She developed an assessment report which included two rounds of end-user testing, identifying areas that needed improvement or were not in compliance, and finally concluded the project with a recommendation report in which she laid out step by step guidelines to implement those changes, and linked to helpful resources and toolkits to further guide us. After completion of the program, Kristen is now serving as a technician for the Accessibility Research Lab team.
We are currently working to implement her suggestions across our website and in our archives.
If your online presence is falling short of meeting accessibility standards and, like us, you aren’t sure where to start, we encourage you to set up a meeting with the Accessibility Research Lab at Mohawk and explore the ways they can assist you.
In the meantime, based on our experience, we have compiled a set of tips you can follow to make your website more accessible:
COLOUR CONTRAST: Check colour contrast in places where text/graphics are displayed on a differently coloured background to ensure legibility. Ensure all colours pass Level AA. You can use free online colour contrast checkers, like this one from Web Aim.
KEYBOARD NAVIGATION: Check the ease of keyboard navigation by hitting the “tab” key. Ensure that all menu items and buttons are able to be viewed and selected.
SIMPLE FONTS: Choose simple fonts, such as sans-serifs like Arial, Helvetica, and Calibri. Avoid fonts that are too hard to read, such as some curly, decorative, and cursive fonts.
ALT TEXT: Ensure all displayed images and infographics contain alt text. Alt text allows individuals using a screen reader to access the content of the image. To check if alt text has been assigned to an image, inspect your webpage’s HTML code. Ensure the alt text is concise but sufficiently descriptive. Alternatively, for complex graphics requiring a longer description, you can create a link on the webpage that leads to a separate document containing the alt text. Moz.com has a good resource for learning to write alt text.
VIDEO CAPTIONS & DESCRIBED VIDEO: Add captions to all videos - remember to include captions for sound effects, music, and dialogue. Additionally, any visuals, text, and actions on the screen that are important to understanding a video should be narrated using described video. To read more about adding captions to Youtube videos see the Youtube support forum. To learn more about writing effective captions, please see The Described and Captioned Media Program. To learn more about described video best practices, please see the guides from AMI
ADD TAGS: Add tags and correct reading order to all PDFs. Tagging allows individuals with visual disabilities to understand the organizational structure and content of the PDF. For more information about how to add tags, view this guide from Common Look.