Creating Universally Accessible Materials: Expectations of Faculty

Accessibility is a public health issue. Having the opportunity to access, use, and understand information, applications, and other resources is a determinant in every individual’s quality of life. Furthermore, it is a fundamental human right. Taking a proactive approach, Johns Hopkins University has made a commitment toward accessibility for all of our constituents, and in all of our environments: physical and digital. Faculty have a significant role to play in achieving this.

Universitywide guidelines require all new course materials be digitally accessible as of January 1, 2021. This includes all resources authored by faculty and distributed to or otherwise shared with students. (Note that while it is a best practice to share only accessible resources, anything created or shared before 2021 does not fall within the current mandate.)

To define “digitally accessible,” Johns Hopkins follows WCAG 2.1 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) success criteria put forth by the World Wide Web Consortium. These success criteria will help make our learning environment one that provides equitable opportunity and usability for all individuals, and enable us to reach and interact with the most people possible without the need for further adaptation.

The expectations toward meeting these guidelines are that faculty will, at a minimum, embrace a set of best practices. Of course, faculty are encouraged to do more than this to grow their comprehension and implementation of digital accessibility. As a start, they can go beyond the minimum expectations to learn more about Authoring Accessible Materials. Additionally, faculty may attend a class or workshop specific to accessibility or the related discipline of Universal Design for Learning. Another opportunity is for faculty to familiarize themselves with this simplified WCAG checklist maintained by WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind). And then there are Best Practices in Accessibility, extending beyond the digital resources.

A stand-alone Accessibility Checklist (PDF document) of these faculty expectations is also available.

Faculty Expectations

All Johns Hopkins faculty are asked to embrace the following best practices as initial steps toward creating digitally accessible materials.

Skip to simplified Checklist

Use Templates

Whenever possible, use Word and PowerPoint templates designed in such a way to promote the use of recommended contrast ratios, alternative (alt) text for images, accessible fonts, headings, and logical reading order. In addition to the accessible templates offered by the School, Microsoft Office has several available accessible templates.

Use Built-in Tools, Including Styles, to Maintain Structure and Formatting

Use tools that are built into your software (e.g., PowerPoint and Word) for formatting section headings, paragraph styles, and section layouts. Heading styles can be modified in any document or theme to get the look you want (font size, decoration, paragraph spacing, etc.) without sacrificing the meaningful structure that's important to accessibility. Similarly, the appearance of true bulleted and numbered lists can be modified while still providing structure. And layout should always be controlled by adjusting section breaks (including columns), indentations/margins, and spacing to maintain structural integrity that impacts reading order and usability. (This is one reason why it's always important to insert images "in-line" with text.)

Provide Alternative Text for Images (and Other Non-text Elements)

For any image or other non-text element that is not purely decorative, provide appropriate alternative text (alt text) that is brief and conveys the purpose or meaning of the object to someone who might not be able to visually perceive it. The alt text should succinctly describe the object using appropriate terminology for the intended audience and be written in context to the rest of the document. Objects requiring alt text include non-decorative images, embedded media files, and complex tables and charts. These objects may be accompanied by captions or other text in close proximity. Additionally, alt text (or a caption) might reference a section of the document or entirely separate resource that provides more details.

Never Rely on Color Alone and Consider Color Contrast Ratios

Whether you are emphasizing text in a paragraph, working in a table cell, or editing a chart or other visual's legend, do not use only color as a distinguishing feature to draw attention nor to identify an object. Consider other variations such as italicized, bold text and labels or varied line types on a chart. And whenever you select a color -- whether its to style your text or to differentiate regions in a map, diagram, or other visual -- be mindful of the contrast (light-to-dark) ratio (passing for level AA) of overlapping objects. This includes shading and text in a table's cells or the text over a slide's background or other object behind the text placeholder.

Make Hyperlinks Meaningful; Use full URLs only when Important

When you insert hyperlinks in a resource, avoid displaying the full URL (unless that is the meaningful text, such as in a citation's text). Instead select meaningful words or phrases that indicate what will happen or where the link takes a person. (See this page by 4 Syllables: Writing Links for help with this practice.) Additionally, the hyperlinked text should stand out in appearance from the surrounding text -- usually this happens by using use a different font color and text decoration. The links should be meaningful and readily apparent.

Use Tables only for Organizing Data and Pay Attention to their Style

Tables must never be used for controlling a page or document's layout. If a table is inserted, it should be used only for sorting or organizing data. In addition, tables should have visible borders and a designated header row. (In tables that might span across more than one page, it's very important to repeat the header row automatically.) Additionally, a best practice is to avoid empty, split. or merged cells. And complex tables should have a caption or alternate text.

Distributed PDFs must be Accessible, Tagged Documents

Never forward scanned documents. Only distribute accessible, tagged PDFs. These usually start with an document that was created to be accessible in a program such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, and then exported using a tool such as Adobe Acrobat.

Use Accessibility Checkers

Use the accessibility checkers that are built into your software (such as Microsoft Office’s accessibility assistant tool and Adobe Acrobat Pro’s accessibility check tool) whenever they are available.

Provide Captions and Alternative Accessible Formats for Video and Audio

For both video and audio content, share alternative accessible formats of the media. This includes accurate transcripts and accessible versions of any slide presentations. Video should include accurate captioning or interactive (time-based) transcripts. For all synchronous and asynchronous video production, when possible, use self-recording tools with built-in captioning or interactive transcription, such as Panopto’s automatic speech recognition (ASR) or Zoom’s audio transcription for cloud recordings. If built-in transcription is not available, use Microsoft Stream for transcription or another third-party service.

Note that while the quality of automatic transcription and captioning services is constantly improving, their outputs will not meet the required accommodation for an individual with a documented disability. Discuss meeting this accommodation with Student Disability Services.

Become Familiar with University Resources

Lastly, faculty are expected to know their university resources. At BSPH, the Center for Teaching and Learning often schedules accessibility training and our Toolkit's section on accessibility is often being updated. Additionally, look for upcoming training and take a few minutes to review the Digital Accessibility at JHU site. Make sure to visit their Events and FAQ pages.

Checklist

Accessibility Checklist for Johns Hopkins Faculty

Keep the following in mind when creating accessible instructional content.

Accessibility Item	Consider...	How to Achieve?
Templates		Use accessible templates, adhering to placeholders and maintaining reading order.
Built-in Tools		Use built-in tools for styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) and layout (bullets, numbering, column breaks, etc.).
Alt Text		Provide alt text (succinct, alternative descriptions) for images and complex nontext elements.
Color		Avoid using color as the only means of distinguishing information.
Contrast Ratio		Be mindful of color contrast ratios of text against a background and when objects overlap.
Hyperlinks		Make hyperlinks meaningful by linking only text that indicates the linked resource or destination. Use full URLs (Universal Resource Locators) only when that is the meaningful text.
Tables		Use tables only for organizing data (and never for layout). Make sure that tables have header rows and visible borders.
PDFs		Use only accessible, tagged PDFs and never scanned documents. Accessible PDFs are usually created from an accessible text, spreadsheet, or presentation file using a tool such as Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft's Export to PDF.
Checkers		Use built-in accessibility checkers.
Alternate Formats		Provide alternate forms of the content (for video and audio files), including transcripts and captioning.