Accessibility for Website Documents

Make Sure Your Content is Accessible

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Documents published any of the Walters State websites need to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards. This means any docs, pdfs, spreadsheets or power points need to be created with accessibility in mind from the beginning and scanned before they are submitted for publication. This guide is just for documents that will be accessed digitally from one of the websites.

 

The TBR has put together a fantastic page of tutorials for us to use that talks about the basics of document and web accessibility. There are specific tutorials for the most common products we use for web documents like Word and Adobe Acrobat. 

WSCC Accessibility Training Resources

 

Communications and Marketing are currently auditing hundreds of forms and documents across all Walters State web properties:

• Plan ahead: Submit content early and allow up to two weeks for review and publication.
• Content owners: Please review the documents and forms on your assigned pages.

Word docx Files

You can easily access the Word Accessibility Checker by going to "Review > Check Accessibility" on the Word toolbar. The scan will open up to the side of the document. Make the changes the scanner tells you to make to improve the accessibility of the document.

Adobe Acrobat pdf Files

Currently it is more difficult to edit and remediate pdfs. We would much rather have the document in its original form than as a pdf. But, if you would like to try to improve the accessibility of a pdf in Adobe Acrobat Pro you can find the checker in the sidebar of Adobe Acrobat Pro under "All Tools > More Tools > Prepare for accessibility". You  must first run the auto tagger and then run the scanner and do as the scanner says. There is a learning curve to this process and the results are not as good as a Word doc.

Accessibility Training Resources - TBR Website

 

Sometimes we find pages with broken links and very old documents on the website and we may ask you to review your page. Here's what to do when reviewing a page with multiple documents.

Use this decision checklist for each document:

• Do we still need it? If it is outdated or broken, remove it.
• Can it be a web page instead? It is often easier to publish content directly into our CMS, which has built-in accessibility tools.
• Do you have the source file? Original files (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx) are much easier to scan and remediate than exported PDFs.
• Should it be temporarily removed? If a complex document needs significant rebuilding, we can take it down until it is updated.
• Can it be archived? For historical, print-era items (such as past issues of The Mildred Haun Review or older Annual Reports), we can move them to designated, clearly labeled archive folders.

 

All Walters State documents should follow college branding standards. Our brand fonts and colors were specifically chosen to ensure clear readability, accessible font sizing, and proper color contrast.

Visit the Communications and Marketing Branding Resources page to:

• Review the complete branding and editorial guides
• Download approved college logos via our toolkit
• Request a document publication number

Brand Resources

 

We are working with NextGen support to get updated tutorials for the most common accessibility problems the WAVE scanner finds with Dynamic Forms. 

How to Add Form Labels to Dynamic Forms
(This page is behind a WSCC login.)

Dynamic Forms Official Guide
(Opens in another tab and requires a Dynamic Forms login)

NextGen Building Accessible Dynamic Forms
(Pdf document opens in another tab)