Accessibility on Websites

Website accessibility is a way to allow everyone including the disabled to have access to the web and internet as a whole. In other words, web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web and gain as rich an experience as those without disabilities through careful, thoughtful design practices.

For many people the first exposure to the Saint Mary's community will be through the SMU website as they research programs and explore what the university has to offer. For returning students and other site users the website is an important tool to keep up-to-date and current with course material, university events, announcements, offerings etc. For this reason, it is important that the experience all members of the SMU community have with the website be positive, including those with various disabilities and challenges. 

For this reason, certain web design practices are encouraged to help those with disabilities navigate the SMU website so that it can be in a positive and helpful experience for them. 

Here are a few things to take into consideration when adding content to a web page:

Colour contrasts: People who cannot see a full spectrum of colour benefit most when there is a strong contrast between text and the background colour. Certain colour combinations cannot be seen by everyone, such as red green colour blindness. People who see in only black and white will not see content easily if it is presented using midrange colours against similar backgrounds.

Poor colour contrast examples:

Poor Text to background contrast	Poor Text to background contrast	Poor Text to background contrast	Poor Text to background contrast

 

Good colour contrast examples:

Good text to background contrast	Good text to background contrast	Good text to background contrast	Good text to background contrast

 

Images: Images are an important feature of the visual experience of a website, but sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend avoiding using images of text if you expect the text to be read by the user, unless it's necessary such as in a logo or brand name, in which case the alt text should be the same as the text in the image.

Section 1.4.9 of WCAG: Images of Text (No Exception): Images of text are only used for pure decoration or where a particular presentation of text is essential to the information being conveyed. (Level AAA)

The best time and place to use images is to add visual appeal to a page and to support the content of the page, but NOT to use an image to communicate that content. 

For instance a news or events posting can have photographs integrated within the page, but the images should NOT use text to communicate any portion of the actual posting. 

Below is an example of an image that should NOT be used on a website:

 

Below is a good use of images and text: 

 

The Beauty of the Saint Mary's University

Beauty can be seen all over the Saint Mary's University campus year round.