Accessibility Best Practices
A Comprehensive Guide for Community College Faculty & Staff
Creating Inclusive Digital Learning Environments
2025 Edition
Executive Summary
This guide provides community college faculty and staff with practical best practices for creating accessible educational content. By implementing these strategies, you will ensure compliance with legal standards including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504, Section 508, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, while creating a more inclusive learning environment for all students.
Key Takeaway
Accessibility is not just about compliance—it's about ensuring every student has an equal opportunity to succeed. When you design with accessibility in mind from the start, everyone benefits from clearer, more usable content.
1. Document Accessibility
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF Documents
Use Proper Heading Styles
Screen readers rely on heading structures to navigate documents. Always use the built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) rather than just making text bold or larger.
DO
- • Use Heading 1 for main titles
- • Use Heading 2 for major sections
- • Use Heading 3 for subsections
- • Keep heading hierarchy logical
DON'T
- • Don't just bold text for headings
- • Don't skip heading levels
- • Don't use headings for styling only
- • Don't use ALL CAPS for emphasis
Add Alternative Text to Images
Alt text provides a text description of images for students using screen readers. Every meaningful image must have descriptive alt text.
How to Add Alt Text:
- • Word/PowerPoint: Right-click image → Edit Alt Text
- • PDF: Use Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility tools
- • Canvas: Use the alt text field when uploading images
Alt Text Writing Guidelines:
- • Keep it concise: 125 characters or less when possible
- • Be descriptive: Describe what's important about the image in context
- • Skip redundant phrases: Don't start with "Image of..." or "Picture of..."
- • Decorative images: Mark as decorative if image is purely aesthetic
✓ Good Alt Text Examples
"Bar chart showing enrollment growth from 2019 to 2023, with steady increases each year"
"Professor demonstrating lab equipment to three students"
✗ Poor Alt Text Examples
"Image"
"Chart"
"IMG_0045.jpg"
Create Accessible Tables
Tables must be properly structured with header rows to be accessible to screen readers.
- • Use the built-in table creation tools (don't use spaces or tabs to align columns)
- • Designate the first row as a header row
- • Keep table structure simple—avoid merged cells when possible
- • Add a table caption describing the table's purpose
- • Don't use tables for layout purposes
Ensure Readable Color Contrast
Text must have sufficient contrast against its background to be readable by students with visual impairments.
- • Minimum contrast ratio: 4.5:1 for normal text
- • Large text: 3:1 for text 18pt+ or bold 14pt+
- • Don't rely on color alone: Use text labels, patterns, or icons in addition to color
- • Test your colors: Use online contrast checkers to verify compliance
Document Accessibility Checklist
- ☐ Proper heading styles used throughout
- ☐ All meaningful images have alt text
- ☐ Tables have header rows designated
- ☐ Color contrast meets WCAG standards
- ☐ Hyperlinks use descriptive text
- ☐ Font size is at least 12pt
- ☐ Document has a logical reading order
- ☐ Accessibility checker has been run
2. Video and Multimedia Accessibility
Add Closed Captions to All Videos
Captions are essential for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and also benefit students in noisy environments or non-native English speakers.
Caption Quality Standards:
- • Accuracy: 99% accuracy minimum
- • Synchronization: Captions should appear simultaneously with audio
- • Speaker identification: Identify speakers when not obvious
- • Sound effects: Include relevant non-speech sounds [applause], [music]
Captioning Tools:
- • YouTube: Auto-captions (always review and edit for accuracy)
- • Zoom: Enable live captions during recording
- • Panopto: Built-in caption editor
- • Rev.com: Professional captioning service
Provide Transcripts
In addition to captions, provide a full text transcript that students can download and reference.
Audio Descriptions
For videos with important visual information, provide audio descriptions that narrate visual elements for blind or low-vision students.
3. Email and Course Announcements
Use Descriptive Subject Lines
Clear subject lines help all students, especially those using screen readers, quickly understand the email's purpose.
✓ Good Subject Lines
"Week 5 Assignment Due Friday, Oct 15"
"Reminder: Midterm Exam Location Changed"
✗ Poor Subject Lines
"Important"
"FYI"
"Reminder"
Structure Email Content Properly
Use heading styles, lists, and proper paragraph breaks to make emails scannable and navigable.
- • Use the Styles menu to create headings (not just bold text)
- • Create bulleted or numbered lists with proper formatting
- • Use logical paragraph breaks
- • Keep sentences and paragraphs concise
4. Hyperlinks and Navigation
Create Descriptive Link Text
Link text should clearly describe the destination. Avoid generic phrases like "click here" or "read more."
✓ Descriptive Links
- • "Download the course syllabus"
- • "View assignment rubric"
- • "Register for tutoring services"
✗ Non-Descriptive Links
- • "Click here"
- • "Read more"
- • "Link"
- • Raw URLs: "www.example.com"
Link Best Practices:
- • Make links visually distinct (underlined and/or colored)
- • Ensure link text makes sense out of context
- • Don't use URL as link text unless necessary
- • Indicate if link opens in new window or downloads a file
5. Canvas LMS Accessibility
Design Accessible Course Pages
Canvas includes built-in accessibility features. Use them consistently throughout your course.
Course Navigation:
- • Enable only the navigation items students need
- • Use clear, descriptive names for course modules and pages
- • Organize content in a logical, predictable order
- • Provide multiple ways to access content (modules, assignments page, etc.)
Assignment Instructions:
- • Use clear, concise language
- • Break complex instructions into numbered steps
- • Include due dates and point values prominently
- • Provide examples when helpful
Canvas Accessibility Checker: Run the accessibility checker on all pages, assignments, and discussions. Fix any issues identified before publishing.
6. PDF Accessibility
Create Accessible PDFs from the Start
It's much easier to create an accessible PDF from an accessible source document than to remediate an inaccessible PDF.
Best Practices:
- • Start with accessible source: Ensure your Word/PowerPoint document is accessible first
- • Use "Save As" instead of Print to PDF: This preserves document structure
- • Tag the PDF: Use Adobe Acrobat to add or verify tags
- • Set reading order: Ensure content flows logically
- • Add form labels: All form fields must have descriptive labels
PDF Accessibility Checklist
- ☐ Document is tagged
- ☐ Reading order is logical
- ☐ All images have alt text
- ☐ Document has a title
- ☐ Language is set correctly
- ☐ Forms have field labels
- ☐ Tables have headers
- ☐ Color contrast is sufficient
When possible, provide both PDF and Word formats to give students flexibility in how they access content.
7. Testing and Validation
Use Built-In Accessibility Checkers
Most software includes accessibility checking tools. Make it a habit to run these checks before finalizing content.
| Tool | How to Access | What It Checks |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | Review → Check Accessibility | Headings, alt text, color contrast, tables |
| PowerPoint | Review → Check Accessibility | Reading order, alt text, slide titles |
| Adobe Acrobat | All Tools → Accessibility | Tags, reading order, forms, color |
| Canvas | Click accessibility icon in editor | Headings, images, links, tables |
Manual Testing:
- • Keyboard navigation: Can you navigate without a mouse using Tab, Enter, and arrow keys?
- • Screen reader test: Try using a screen reader (NVDA, JAWS) on your content
- • Zoom test: Can content be zoomed to 200% without losing functionality?
- • Color blindness simulation: Use tools to preview how content looks with color vision deficiency
8. Common Accessibility Mistakes to Avoid
✗ Top 10 Accessibility Errors
- Missing alt text: Images without descriptions
- Generic link text: "Click here" links
- Using only color to convey information: "See the red bars on the chart"
- Poor color contrast: Light gray text on white backgrounds
- Fake headings: Bold text instead of proper heading styles
- Inaccessible forms: Form fields without labels
- Scanned documents: Image-based PDFs without OCR
- Videos without captions: Multimedia lacking captions or transcripts
- Unlabeled icons: Icons without text labels
- Flashing content: Animations that could trigger seizures
9. Implementation Roadmap
Phase 1: Immediate Actions (First 30 Days)
- • Run accessibility checker on current course materials
- • Add alt text to all images in your main course pages
- • Fix heading structure in key documents
- • Update link text to be descriptive
- • Enable captions on existing videos
Phase 2: Short-Term Goals (30-90 Days)
- • Attend accessibility training workshop
- • Remediate most-used course documents
- • Create accessible templates for future content
- • Test course with keyboard navigation
- • Gather student feedback on accessibility
Phase 3: Long-Term Commitment (90+ Days)
- • Make accessibility part of content creation routine
- • Mentor colleagues on accessibility practices
- • Continuously update and improve course materials
- • Stay current with WCAG updates and best practices
- • Share success stories with campus accessibility team
10. Resources and Support
Campus Resources:
- • Contact your institutional accessibility coordinator
- • Attend campus accessibility training sessions
- • Join the accessibility team meetings
- • Request accessibility consultations for your course
External Resources:
- • WCAG 2.1 Guidelines: www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/
- • WebAIM: webaim.org (tutorials and testing tools)
- • Accessible Technology Coalition: athen.org
- • CAST Universal Design: cast.org
Remember: Accessibility Is an Ongoing Journey
You don't need to fix everything at once. Start with small, manageable changes and build accessibility into your regular workflow. Every improvement you make helps create a more inclusive learning environment for all students.