[CMSusers] Accessible websites - Images

[cmsusers@tamuc.edu]

Greeting CMS Editors,

 

Making websites accessible means everyone can read and interact with a
webpage, including people with disabilities. I will be evaluating all
web pages to ensure we are in compliance with A&M-Commerce Online
Accessibility Compliance Plan. This means I will be sending out specific
information on what you will need to do to update your webpages to meet
our accessibility compliance goals. As a team we can work together to
make our webpages accessible for all people.

 

Our first task is to improve image descriptions. One of the biggest
accessibility problems on the Web today is images do not have meaningful
description. Individuals who are visually impaired often use screen
readers or refreshable Braille devices that read the text on the page to
them. When these assistive technologies come across images without 'alt'
text or meaningful text, they are unable to communicate their meaning.
The user either misses the image content completely or gets some text
that is probably meaningless.

 

Images on Web sites are used in three main ways:

1.       to convey important content

2.       to provide visual enhancements which offer no real content

3.       to link to other areas of the site

4.       to identify name of person or name of building

 

The screen reader or assistive device will read what has been entered in
the text box within the Alternate Text box in Cascade. Therefore, it is
best to not use the word "image", "numbers", "picture of ...", or list
image file names within the Alternate Text box in Cascade. For example,
Tina1 could be replaced as Tina Blake, DC0221993.jpg be replaced with a
descriptive text such as Collins Building. 

 

To check if your images on your webpages have meaningful description,
open Cascade, select a page then select the Insert/Edit Image icon to
view the Alternate Text for each image.

 

If your webpage has an image to enhance the visual appeal and is used
for decorative purposes, these images do not have any value to someone
who cannot see the page. To inform the screen readers to skip over the
image without reading the alternate text (description of the image)
press the spacebar on the Alternate Text textbox. See image and
instructions below.

 

Instructions: On the Insert/Edit Image dialog box press the spacebar in
the Alternate text box (image shown below).    

 

 

Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for taking
the time to review and update the image descriptions on your webpages.

 

-Lydia

 

 

Lydia Harkey

Texas A&M University-Commerce

P.O. Box 3011

Commerce, Tx 75429

p: 903.468.3029   f: 903.886.5415

Lydia.Harkey at tamuc.edu <mailto:Lydia.Harkey at tamuc.edu>  | Information
Technology
<http://www.tamuc.edu/studentLife/campusServices/ITSupportCenter/default
.aspx> 

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