Appendix A: Checklist for Accessibility
Checklist for Accessibility
Organizing content
- ☐ Content is organized under headings and subheadings.
- ☐ Headings and subheadings are used sequentially (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2).
Images
- ☐ Images that convey information include alternative text (alt text) descriptions of the image’s content or function.
- ☐ Graphs, charts, and maps also include contextual or supporting details in the text surrounding the image.
- ☐ Images do not rely on color to convey information.
- ☐ Images that are purely decorative do not have alt text descriptions. (Descriptive text is unnecessary if the image doesn’t convey contextual content information).
Links
- ☐ The link text describes the destination of the link and does not use generic text such as “click here” or “read more.”
- ☐ If a link will open or download a file (like a PDF or Excel file), a textual reference is included in the link information (e.g., [PDF]).
- ☐ Links do not open in new windows or tabs.
- ☐ If a link must open in a new window or tab, a textual reference is included in the link information (e.g., [NewTab]).
- ☐ For citations and references, the title of the resource is hyperlinked, and the full URL is not hyperlinked.
Tables
- ☐ Tables are used to structure information and not for layout.
- ☐ Tables include row and column headers.
- ☐ Row and column headers have the correct scope assigned.
- ☐ Tables include a caption.
- ☐ Tables avoid merged or split cells.
- ☐ Tables have adequate cell padding.
Multimedia
- ☐ All audio content includes a transcript. The transcript includes all speech content and relevant descriptions of non-speech audio and speaker names/headings where necessary.
- ☐ Videos have captions of all speech content and relevant non-speech content that has been edited by a human for accuracy.
- ☐ All videos with contextual visuals (graphs, charts, etc.) are described audibly in the video.
Formulas
- ☐ Equations written in plain text use proper symbols (i.e., −, ×, ÷).[1]
- ☐ For complex equations, one of the following is true:
- They were written using LaTeX and are rendered with MathJax (Pressbooks).
- They were written using Microsoft Word’s equation editor.
- They are presented as images with alternative text descriptions.
- ☐ Written equations are properly interpreted by text-to-speech tools.[2]
Font size
- ☐ Font size is 12 point or higher for body text in Word and PDF documents.
- ☐ Font size is 9 point for footnotes or endnotes in Word and PDF documents.
- ☐ Font size can be enlarged by 200 per cent in webbook or ebook formats without needing to scroll side to side.
Attributions
- Adapted from “Accessibility Toolkit—2nd Edition” by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray (a collaboration between BCcampus, Camosun College, and CAPER-BC) licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- For example, a hyphen (-) may look like a minus sign (−), but it will not be read out correctly by text-to-speech tools. ↵
- Written equations should prioritize semantic markup over visual markup so text-to-speech tools will read out an equation in a way that makes sense to auditory learners. This applies to both equations written in LaTeX and equations written in Microsoft Word’s equation editor. ↵