D2L & Web Page Accessibility

The best thing you can do to make your D2L web pages accessible is to use the template pages provided in your course development shell to create new pages for your course. Add your content to these template pages using the principles under "How to Check and Fix Design Elements" below.

Consider using the D2L HTML editor because accessibility has been considered in most aspects of HTML technology, whereas your course documents in Word, PDF, etc. may or may not have been created accessibly (they will probably be more complicated and time-intensive to remediate). Also, students who use text-to-speech technology cannot access the Word, PDF, and PowerPoint documents in the D2L document viewer.

Using the HTML editor basically makes a web page that is readable by screen readers without a download. However, Word documents (and other non-HTML filetypes) can and should be used when students need to download, edit, and then upload the changed file to a dropbox. 

1. If you have not already created the document in Word, save yourself some steps and create the content directly in a D2L file using the accessibility principles found in the "How to Check and Fix Design Elements" section below.
2. If you have existing Word or PowerPoint documents that you want to use as course information pages, you can simply copy your content into a D2L page by:
   1. In the D2L Content area > click the New button > choose to Create a file.
   2. After choosing "Create a File" in D2L, choose one of the built in pages templates with simple formatting to give your page a style. (Note: An accessible syllabus outline is one of the choices.)
   3. Copy the contents of an entire document or a portion of the document.
   4. Move back to the D2L page.
   5. Place the cursor in the D2L web page where you wish to paste.
   6. Use the Paste as Text command – Control + Shift + V (Windows) or Shift+Option+Command+V (Mac) to paste the text of the Word document as plain text. Pasting text in this manner places all text in one long paragraph.
      (Note: Sometimes a simple, normal CTRL+V paste and choice of "Keep formatting" will give the desired results. You may want to try that first. Other times, the Word code is messy and does not give the desired results and this plain text pasting technique will help.)
   7. Break up the text into paragraphs and apply heading and list styles.
      
      
      
      (Note: If you don’t separate heading text from the paragraph below it, the style will affect all of the text. Break the text into sections by placing the cursor in the new paragraph location and press the enter key.)
   8. Create Accessible Tables – If you have simple tables, just add a title and description in Word’s table properties and then paste the table into your D2L page the normal way using the typical Control +V (Windows) or Command +V (Mac).
   9. Documents with Images - Save any images that existed in the Word document as separate images. (Right click the images in Word and save them to your computer.) Then, upload the images into your D2L Content page by clicking the HTML editor "insert image" icon. Remember to add alt text and descriptions when prompted by D2L.
      

Screen readers can navigate through a page by jumping from heading to heading. This allows screen reader users to quickly skim the content to find the section they’re looking for.

This warning appears when you make a paragraph bold to indicate it is a section header, but you don’t actually change the format of the paragraph to a heading format like “Heading 1”, “Heading 2”, etc.

If there are no headings indicated in the HTML, it is very difficult for screen reader users to efficiently navigate your document. Every page should at least contain an H1 heading to indicate the page title, and H2 headings for the main sections if they exist.

How to Resolve

Select an appropriate heading level from the dropdown list in the Accessibility Checker dialogue box, then click Repair.

Headings are used to organize information hierarchically on a page. Items categorized as heading level 2 represent subheadings of heading level 1; heading level 3 items represent subheadings of heading level 2, and so forth.

Headings should never skip a level going down; for example, you should not put an H4 directly under an H2. However, skipping levels on the way up the hierarchy (i.e., skipping from H4 to H2) is acceptable.

• H1: Math Department
  
  • H2: Courses
    • h2: Undergraduate Courses
    • h2: Graduate Courses
      • H4: Required Courses
      • H4: Optional Courses
  • H2: Faculty

How to Resolve

Change the lower heading level to the appropriate higher heading level to eliminate the skip. You can do this with the Format dropdown menu in the HTML Editor menu bar.

For example, if you placed an H4 directly under an H2 section, you could fix this by changing the H4 text to h2.

Alternatively, you could add a new level 3 heading between the level 2 and level 4 headings.

Screen readers can navigate through a page by jumping directly to lists (bulleted and numbered).

However, if you create a list by just typing asterisks or numerals into the HTML Editor, the screen reader will not identify that properly as a list.

How to Resolve

Instead of manually inserting asterisks or numbers to label items in a list, use the list button in the HTML Editor menu. Click the Unordered (bulleted) list button, or select the drop down and choose Ordered (numbered) list.

Insufficient color contrast between text and its background can make your content difficult or impossible to read for individuals with low vision or color blindness.

Large text can have a lower color contrast ratio; if your text is 18pt or larger, you will only receive an error if the contrast is below a 3:1 ratio. 

How to Resolve

Open the “Select a Color” dialog box from the HTML Editor menu by clicking on the dropdown arrow next to the box showing the current text color: 

If your current contrast is insufficient, you’ll see a red warning symbol next to the words WCAG AA. Change the text color until the red warning symbol changes to a green check mark.

Screen readers cannot describe the content of an image on their own. When you insert an image in the HTML Editor, you will see a prompt to add alt-text. This text is what a screen reader will read out loud instead of saying “image” or the filename. If the image is decorative, you can check a box in the prompt to indicate that the screen reader should not read it out.

This warning will appear in the Accessibility Checker if you enter a space (“ ”) for the alt-text or remove the alt=“description” text from the HTML source code.

How to Resolve

Within the Accessibility Checker dialog, enter a concise description of the content of the image in the "Add alternative text" field, then click Repair.

This warning means that you entered the filename (e.g. my-image.jpg) as the alt-text. Alt-text is read out loud by screen readers to describe images on the screen. The filename is not an adequate description of the content of the image.

How to Resolve

In the Accessibility Checker dialog box, replace the filename with an appropriate, concise description of the image, then click Repair. 

Captions are visible on the page to allow all users to better understand the purpose of a table. A caption concisely describes the content of a table.

How to Resolve

Type an appropriate caption in the Accessibility Checker dialog box and click Repair. 

Complex tables are tables with merged cells and may have multiple header rows or columns. These tables are more difficult to understand and navigate with a screen reader, so a summary is provided to screen reader users that explains the structure of the table. The summary is not visible on the page to all users, unlike the caption, and should describe how to navigate the table.

How to Resolve

Within the Accessibility Checker dialog box, type in a table summary with enough information for students who can't see the table to be able to understand how to navigate the table's information. Remember to click Repair.

Header rows help provide context and structure for the data in a table. Making the header row bold is not an accessible way to indicate the header row because screen readers do not consistently read out italics and bold formatting.

Setting a header row is somewhat difficult to do in the HTML Editor itself, so the easiest way to set headers is to run the Accessibility Checker and use the Repair option.

How to Resolve

Select whether your table uses header rows or columns, and click Repair.

As screen readers move through a table, they read out the row or column header of the current table cell to help the user keep track of their location.

However, it can be unclear to the screen reader whether a header cell should be the header for its row or its column. This is addressed by setting the “scope” of the header.

How to Resolve

The Accessibility Checker allows you to set the scope of each header cell. If the header describes the cells in its row, select Row. If the header describes the cells in its column, select Column. If the header cell is a merged cell that describes a group of rows, select Row Group. If the header cell is a merged cell that describes a group of columns, select Column Group. Then click Repair.

If you provide two identical hyperlinks next to each other, this warning will appear, even if they have different link text. Repeated links are confusing for screen reader users and should be merged into one link.

Example of adjacent links:

FITC Accessibility (http://mtsu.edu/ait/accessibility/index.php)

Note: It’s best practice to make your link text descriptive and to avoid including the URL in the link text, for example, "visit the FITC Accessibility page" is preferred to "Click Here" and/or the full URL.

How to Resolve

Click Repair in the Accessibility Checker dialog box.

It isn't enough to make headings big and bold. Headings need to be formatted as headings.

• Highlight the text and select the Heading # from the drop-down Format menu on the tool bar.

 Video: How to Add Headings

In addition to formatting headings as headings, the headings need to be used in the correct order. Headings chunk your content making it easier for everyone to read. Headings are also a major way of navigating with a screen reader.

Headings must be used in the correct order for them to be useful.

• Heading 1 is like the title of a book and there is just one Heading 1 per page. Heading 2s are like chapter titles. Heading 3s are sub-sections of those chapters, and so on.
• Heading order is also similar to the order of an outline.
• DO NOT skip heading levels. Eg. Heading 2 to Heading 4 could confuse screen reader users. Instead, only step down one level at a time.
• See below for a visual display of correct heading structure.

Page formatting (lists, headings and links) is read aloud to screen reader users so that the content can be understood in context. If order is important in your list, make it a numbered list. If order is not important, a bulleted list is a better choice.

1. Select/highlight the content you want to make into a list.
2. On the toolbar, click on the Unordered (Bullet) List icon if the order doesn't matter or select Ordered (Numbered) List from the drop-down menu (next to the Unordered List icon) if the order does matter.

Video: How to format lists in D2L

Alternative text descriptions of images (alt text) allow screen reader users to benefit from the information being conveyed by an image. For images that cannot be adequately described in one or two brief sentences of alt text, see the Accessibility of Complex Images web page.

What information should you include or exclude from alternative text descriptions? See the DIAGRAM Center's alt text resource.

1. Place the cursor where you want to insert an image, and click the Insert image icon from the toolbar. The Add a File window will open.
2. Browse to the image location either on your computer or in your course offering files. Navigate to where the image is, select the image file, and click the Open button.
• (OPTIONAL) If you would like to organize your files, click the Choose Destination button, select the images folder, and click Select a Path button. This will store your image inside the images folder. If you don’t have an images folder, you can create one by clicking on the New Folder link.
3. Click the Add button
4. The Provide Alternate Text window will open. Type in descriptive text for the image. For example: “Penguins can be found in the South Pole”
• It’s important to write a description that conveys the content and the purpose of the image. If the image is for decorative purposes, just check The image is decorative box instead.
5. Click the OK button, and then the Done button to save.

Video: How to add alt text to images and graphics.

Links are a major method of navigating for everyone. If the links are embedded into meaningful text, they are much more useful.

1. From the toolbar, click on the Insert Quicklink icon.
2. Select URL in the Insert Quicklink window,
   • Type or paste in the URL (web address).
   • Enter text that describes the link's destination in the Link Caption field.
     • For example, if the link will take you to the MTSU website, for the meaningful description I will use "MTSU homepage" instead of the URL "www.mtsu.edu" or "click here" which aren't descriptive.
   • Select Whole Window in the Open In section.
3. Click the Insert button.
4. And don't forget to click on the Update button to save your changes.

Video: How to Create Meaningful Links in D2L.