What is Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act?
- Title II ensures that people with disabilities have equal access to public services.
- Applies to state and local governments, including public colleges like BHCC.
- Expands digital accessibility requirements.
How Do We Make Our Materials Accessible?
- Use built-in accessibility tools:
- Word and Excel: Accessibility checkers
- Adobe Acrobat: PDF conversion and checking wizard
- Follow best practices for formatting and tagging
Resources
Tip: Using the Accessibility Wizard in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. first produces a better result rather than starting with the Adobe Wizard. The Adobe Wizard should be the last step in your process.
- If you are creating a Word document from scratch, follow these accessibility best practices before using the Accessibility Checker (details below).
- Accessibility Checker in Word, Excel PowerPoint
- Accessibility Checker in Adobe
- Video: Accessible PDFs Explained: Laws, Regulations, and Navigating the Tags Tree
- Mass.gov: Web and App Accessibility Testing Resources
- Video: How a visually impaired person uses a screen reader.
- The C.H.I.L.L. acronym signifies Color, Headings, Images, Links, which are basic steps to creating accessible instructional materials. To learn more about making documents accessible, this document has hyperlinks to the accessibility website at the University of Washington. View the CHILL Accessibility Guide (PDF).
Examples & Guides
Creating an accessible structure through headings
Headings help provide an easy way for readers to digest information in chunks. Plus, screen reader users can scan through the headings on the page. Use correct heading levels in a logical order. When you skip heading levels, it can confuse screen reader users. For example, heading 3 should be used after heading 2, and heading 2 should be used after heading 1. When following best practices, heading 3 should not be used right after heading 1. This confuses the screen readers.
Bad example:
- Heading 1
- Heading 3
- Heading 2
- Heading 3
- Heading 1
- Heading 2
- Heading 4
- Heading 2
Good example:
- Heading 1
- Heading 2
- Heading 3
- Heading 2
- Heading 1
- Heading 2
- Heading 3
- Heading 4
- Heading 3
- Heading 2
Creating accessible hyperlinks
A hyperlink is a piece of text that links to another file, webpage, or content. Do not type out the URL in your content because the screen reader will read each character and symbol in the link. For example, the screen reader will read https://www.bhcc.edu/ as
h-t-t-p-s-colon-forward-slash-forward-slash-w-w-w-dot-b-h-c-c-dot-edu-forward-slash. Do not write “Link to” or “Link of” in the hyperlink text because it announces the link automatically when the screen reader comes across a link. Write link text that describes the content of the link target. You can also specify if the link opens in a new window or opens a document.
Do not use:
Please visit our website at https://www.bhcc.edu/.
Click here to learn more about our college.
Email us to find out more about the registration process. (The screen reader users will not know if the text links to an email address or contact information page.)
Click here to view the academic calendar.
To log in to selfservice, click here.
Instead, use the following:
Please visit the BHCC website for more information.
Click on the BHCC Community College website to learn more about our college.
Email us at studentcentral@bhcc.edu to find out more about the registration process. (You can type out the email address because when the screen reader reads the link, the user will know it is an email address and expect it to open in a new window when clicked.)
Visit the myBHCC page to login into selfservice.
How to use alternative text to aid understanding
Alternative text (alt text) is the text that is read instead of the content. In content creation, alt text is added to images, links, tables, charts, buttons, and other graphics.
Alt text for images
Images are essential parts of content creation. They add meaning to the content. Since they are available for sighted users, you can also make them accessible for screen readers. This can be done by adding alt text to images. If you don't add alt text to the image, the screen reader will read the name of the image file instead.
Adding alt text to images also helps people with poor internet connections because the site will display the alt text if the file does not load on the site. When you write the alt text for images, do not include "image of" or "picture of" in the text. The screen reader automatically announces it is an image. Alt text should only contain what the content is about.
Alt Text Example
For this image, the alt text can be any of the following:
- Five students walking
- Students on campus carrying books
- Students enjoying a conversation on campus
Tt is up to content creators to decide which alt text best suits the information being conveyed. It may be helpful to close your eyes and write down what you could see when writing alt text.
Note: The words "picture of" or "image of" are unnecessary within the alt text because the screen readers automatically announce the file type.