Though publishing to the web typically removes barriers to print scholarship, like cost to view and consume, it can also create new ones. It is essential to build accessibility into online projects. The following resources provide a starting point for learning how to make websites and digital resources more accessible.

Cal Poly Accessible Technology Initiative: Web

Cal Poly Accessibility: Tips and Training

• Includes practical tips for how to modify website appearance and content for accessibility, e.g. how to add captions to videos, how to write appropriate alt text for images, etc.

Cal Poly Accessibility: Social Media

World Wide Web Consortium Web Accesibility Initiative (W3C WAI)

• Web accessibility standards released by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which develops international standards for the Web. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is their official international standard.

How to Design Websites for Low-Bandwidth and Offline Experiences

• Tips to make web content more accessible to users with low bandwidth, such as lazy loading and minifying HTML

Low-tech Magazine: How to Build a Low-tech Website

• See section on Low-tech Web Design

Accessibility for ArcGIS and Web Mapping

WebAIM’s WCAG 2 Checklist

• Checklist highlighting the essential points in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2, the most recent WCAG version.

WebAIM’s WAVE Tool

• Input a webpage and the tool runs it through a screen reader and returns any issues that it finds. Useful for double-checking your web pages before sharing them publicly.

WebAIM Contrast Checker

• WCAG 2 requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Apply this checker to text/background color pairs in order to verify that they are appropriately legible.

ArgIGS StoryMaps Story Accessibility Checklist