Accessibility Info

Choose a title that adequately and briefly describes the content of the page. Check that the title is different from other pages on the website, and adequately distinguishes the page from other web pages.

Your Content Management System offers several heading treatments within the “Heading Block.” These are text stylings of differing size and color. The headings indicate priority in descending order.

• Use headings for titles of sections or lists, not for emphasis on sentences.
• Do not use heading styles on text that normally belongs in a paragraph or quote. If you want to draw attention to some text, bold or italicize it, or consider making it a standalone paragraph.
• Use headings sparingly and in a logical order. Heading 3 should be nested under Heading 2, and Heading 4 under Heading 3.
• Take special care to avoid adding empty headings. This can occur when you intend to add a heading to your page, remove it, but leave the empty line in place. It may not be immediately apparent to you when you’ve added an empty heading, so be sure to remove any unnecessary spacing. An empty heading will look like this: <h2></h2> whereas a correctly laid out heading will look like this: <h2>Our History</h2> with the heading text in between the h2 tags.

“Alt text” or “Alternative text” is textual information that is added to an image file. This text helps search engines understand what an image is about. It is also what screen readers (technology that reads text on a website out loud) use to interpret an image and provide a description of that image for the visually impaired. 

• Your website will include features for you to add and edit alt text through the Content Management System.  
• Alt text should be added to each image.  
• Alt text should describe the image accurately and succinctly.   
• If it’s a picture of a person, write out that person’s name. 
• If it’s a thing/object, describe what is present in the picture. For example, if it’s a photo of kayaking on Lake Michigan, example alt text might be “Two women paddling in a red kayak on Lake Michigan at sunset” 
• Try to avoid redundant alt text. If you have several pictures on a page, the alt text should be different for each picture. 

Your Content Management System allows you to embed YouTube and Vimeo videos on pages of your website. YouTube and Vimeo include accessibility settings for video content. 

• Video content should have captions for the hearing-impaired. 
• You can find settings within your YouTube or Vimeo account that allow you to add subtitles/captions directly to your videos.  
• Video should not include any rapidly flashing or strobing lights or colors. 
• For videos from another outside source, it is recommended that you provide a transcription of the video. These transcriptions should be added to the same page of your website that the video is embedded on and labeled as the video transcription. 

An inline frame (iframe) is a HTML element that loads another HTML page within a document. Iframes are helpful tools used for incorporating external content onto your website. These are commonly used for embedding videos, maps, forms, and other types of interactive content. 

Iframes must have relevant titles. Supplying a title within your iframes will provide important context to people using screen readers and other assistive technologies when browsing your website. 

Adding a title to the iframe code will help explain the content’s purpose. Below is an example of an iframe code: 

<iframe src=”http://www.example.com/”>

And here is the same code with a descriptive title added in bold: 

<iframe title=”Product Demonstration video” src=”http://www.example.com/”>

This tells the user that they’re about to watch a product demonstration video.  

Learn more about iframe titles from the Bureau of Internet Accessibility. If you have questions or need assistance adding a title to your iframe code, please reach out to ePageCity. 

Image-based file formats, such as photos with embedded text or documents saved by “print to PDF,” present challenges to the visually impaired because they cannot always be read by screen readers.  

• Use actual text instead of images of/containing text.  
  • Use the image caption feature in the CMS to add captions on your images. 
  • Use images for decoration and not for information delivery. 
  • Use alt text to provide key information from the image. 
• Avoid using PDFs where plain text would work. If you must use a PDF, say, for a printable form, make sure the content is readable by providing either a plain text transcription or creating the PDF with accessibility features.  
• If you transcribe the PDF, the transcription should be added to the same page of your website that the PDF is on. Include a note indicating that the text is a transcription of the linked PDF. 

There are several ways to add accessibility features to your PDF content. Here are a few resources with information on creating accessible PDF content:  

• https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/create-verify-pdf-accessibility.html 
  • These Best Practices techniques require access to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Adobe Acrobat Standard DC do not have the complete set of tools needed to create and validate PDF documents for accessibility. ePageCity can provide a separate quote to add accessibility features to your PDFs. 

When adding hyperlinks throughout your website, be as descriptive as possible to reduce confusion. Describe the link and the destination it points to, rather than simply telling the reader to “click here” or “read more”. For example, write out: 

• “For more information, see Accessibility Issues” instead of “Click here for more information about Accessibility Issues”. 
• “Learn more about Our Services” instead of “Read More”. 

ePageCity will use industry standard methods to audit the compliance of your website with regards to the relevant Accessibility standard. Once compliance has been attained, we will include an Accessibility Statement on your website indicating that on the date noted the website was compliant to the level shown.  This statement will also describe steps that have been taken to promote accessibility, and acknowledgement of areas of the website where accessibility targets have not been met. 

Please do not edit this page without consulting ePageCity. 

If you have added content to your site or changed existing content and are not sure if the changes have invalidated compliance, ePageCity recommends that you contact us for a quote to audit your site and isolate any areas of non-compliance so that the site could be updated and brought into compliance with a new compliant date noted in your Accessibility Statement. ePageCity also offers ongoing Accessibility Audit Review plans that we can provide more information and quote for on request. These are intended to maintain ongoing compliance.