Hill College is committed in providing those with and without disabilities access to all content and services that are offered. This page provides the resources and recommended accessible elements that meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) along with the Section 508 standards. The Hill College website exceeds the accessible benchmarks and will continue to improve and sustain this initiative. The Hill College vision and goal is making our site accessible to all faculty, students, staff and visitors.


Introduction to Web Accessibility

Hill College aligns its strategies and standards with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). To better understand the concepts that are applied to developing an accessible website, W3C summarizes web accessibility nicely in their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) video.


Web Accessibility for Designers Infographic

Web Accessibility for Designers infographic with link to text version at WebAIM.org

How To use the Source Code Tool

The Advanced Code Editor (ACE) is Cascade CMS' built-in syntax-highlighting editor. Assets that are editable with the code editor include Files, Template, Formats, and Text/XML Blocks. The editor provides syntax-highlighting for a variety of languages, auto-indentation and auto-formatting, code folding and code snippets. For our purpose, ACE will be referenced as Source Code Tool. Please review the Using Source Code Tool PDF prior to coping and pasting code to your pages.

Buttons

Copy & Paste code:

<div style="text-align: center;"><a class="slide-button alt" href="https://www.hillcollege.edu">HC Theme Button</a></div>

All that will need to be done is to edit the URL or path ("href" is where the URL and/or path to the file will be added. Everything inside the quotes is where you plug in the url or path, don't delete the quotes) and text on the button.

*Please submit a ticket to Steve Zimmerman to have the call to action button added.

 


Accessible PDF

A document or application is considered accessible if meets certain technical criteria and can be used by people with disabilities. This includes access by people who are mobility impaired, blind, low vision, deaf, hard of hearing, or who have cognitive impairments. The PDF is an accessible sample. All PDFs need to be accessible prior to publishing online.

Note: These Best Practices techniques require access to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Adobe Acrobat Standard DC do not have the complete set of tools needed to create and validate PDF documents for accessibility.


Accessible Tables

This table is a responsive, bordered, and accessible example.

Testing Center Contacts
First Name Last Name Hero Title
Bruce Wayne Batman
Peter Parker Spiderman
Bruce Banner The Hulk
Clark Kent Superman
<div class="table-responsive-md">
<table class="table table-bordered"><caption><strong>Testing Center Contacts</strong></caption>
<thead class="thead-dark">
<tr>
<th scope="col">First Name</th>
<th scope="col">Last Name</th>
<th scope="col">Hero Title</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Bruce</td>
<td>Wayne</td>
<td>Batman</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Peter</td>
<td>Parker</td>
<td>Spiderman</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bruce</td>
<td>Banner</td>
<td>The Hulk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Clark</td>
<td>Kent</td>
<td>Superman</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

This is a Hoverable Row table. Table is designed to be responsive, hover state on rows, accessible attributes and with a colspan attribute.

List of youth football teams
# Team Town Division
1 Sharks Austin Central
2 Dust Devils San Antonio South
3 Stars Dallas North
Games will start at 9:00am.
<table class="table table-hover"><caption>List of youth football teams</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col">#</th>
<th scope="col">Team</th>
<th scope="col">Town</th>
<th scope="col">Division</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th scope="row">1</th>
<td>Sharks</td>
<td>Austin</td>
<td>Central</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">2</th>
<td>Dust Devils</td>
<td>San Antonio</td>
<td>South</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">3</th>
<td>Stars</td>
<td>Dallas</td>
<td>North</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Games will start at 9:00am.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Image

Decorative Image Sample

The "alt" tag is empty, Code:

<img alt="" caption="false" class="" src="" width="500" height="357" />

For a decorative Image, select "decorative image" before clicking "OK" on the edit image dialog screen. See below:

Edit image dialog box with decorative image selected

Images used to supplement other information

The above image is a supplement for the content of the page, notice that the "alt" tag has a description of the image, below:

<img alt="Edit image dialog box with decorative image selected" caption="false" class="" src="" width="331" height="279" />

 

Icon image that has a function (hyperlinked)

Print this page
Use the functionality of the link or button icon as your "alt" text alternative when working with icon images, Code:

<img alt="Print this page" caption="false" src="" width="144" height="144" />
More information on Alternative Text can be found on the WebAIM website.

Links


Color

Color and contrast are both vital when we are talking about web accessibility. There are three success criteria in WCAG 2 that address contrast.

  • 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
  • 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced)
  • 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
  • One additional is the 1.4.1 use of Color, which we discussed in the Link section.

 

Three contrast success criteria in WCAG 2
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced) 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
Hero Title
This is a Level AA requirement Level AAA requirement WCAG 2.1 was published in June 2018. One new 2.1 success criterion moves contrast beyond just text. 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA) reads:

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for the following:

  • Large Text: Large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1;
  • Incidental: Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component, that are pure decoration, that are not visible to anyone, or that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content, have no contrast requirement.
  • Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no contrast requirement.

The only difference between this Level AAA success criterion and Level AA 1.4.3 is that contrast requirements are more stringent. It requires 7:1 contrast for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Although higher contrast is often recommended, we focus on 1.4.3 compliance throughout this article.

The visual presentation of the following have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent color(s):

  • Visual information required to identify user interface components and states, except for inactive components or where the appearance of the component is determined by the user agent and not modified by the author;
  • Parts of graphics required to understand the content, except when a particular presentation of graphics is essential to the information being conveyed.

 We must keep in mind that color blindness affects approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women worldwide. this can affect users who have cataracts, low vision, or are in poor lighting situations.

Color/Contrast Requirements:

  • If a user needs to select a color from a group of swatches, label the color names on the page or item.
  • Avoid color-banded rows in tables, they can cause problems when the background and foreground don't have a high enough contrast ratio.
  • Color in Graphs, Use patterns or various shades so that color-blind users can distinguish them. Adding a legend or labels near each element is also helpful.
  • Referring to Color, don't refer to the color of an object as the only attribute. E.g., instead of saying "select the red button," say "select the red stop button." Button also has the universal square shape in the button.

Accessibility Contact

If you have any questions regarding accessibility and/or any of the defined elements above, please contact:

Steve Zimmerman
Web Administrator
254.659.7849
Email Contact