Dear web editors,
If you have a WordPress user account and edit content on the Berkeley Law website, it is important to be aware of web accessibility rules with which we’re legally obligated to comply. Our goal is to come as close as possible to full compliance, and we need your help. Our website has thousands of pages, hundreds of editors, and content going back many years. So we need everyone’s cooperation in meeting requirements, and want to ensure that going forward, all new web content will be fully accessible.
Please read the following carefully and always follow these practices:
- All videos must have captions.
Don’t embed any video content on the website that is not captioned. The Communications Department has a process in place for ordering captioning services as needed. If you need assistance with captions, please contact Susanna Spiro (susannas@law.berkeley.edu) for details. If your video is hosted on YouTube or Kaltura (also known as My Media or MediaSpace, where most Zoom recordings are now saved), you should at least start by turning on automatic captions, and human-produced captions can be added when available. - Include transcripts with all embedded audio.
As with video captions, we can help you access transcription services if you don’t have your own way of producing transcripts. Transcripts can be appended directly to the audio file in WordPress. Contact me for details. - Use “alternative text” for all images.
Anytime you upload an image to a web page or the WordPress media library, fill in the “Alternative Text” field to describe the image. If the image contains text, the “alt text” must include the text that is on the image (i.e., if the image is a “flyer” containing information, links, or a QR code). Images in the media library that are missing alt text will have a pink background (see below for an example of images in the library with and without alt text).
- If the image functions as a link or an action button, use the alt text field to describe the link destination or the action.
I.e., graphical buttons like “Make a Gift” or “Register.” These are called “functional images” and are especially important for accessibility. All images on the site must have a text alternative, and if an image is a link, the alt text should state what will happen when the image is clicked, for example, alt=”Event registration page”. - When inserting an image into a page, do not select “Link to: media file.”
If the image needs to link to another web page or a file, use “Link to: custom URL.” In most cases, the correct setting should be “Link to: none.” - When creating links on a web page, do not use generic link text such as “Click here” or “Read more.” Use descriptive language.
The link text should reasonably describe the link destination specifically, especially if there is more than one link on a page. For example, rather than writing “Read the article here” (with “here” as the link), use “Read the article” (with that whole sentence as the link). - Remove old pages and delete outdated content.
Some archival content has value, but for example old event announcements or schedules from years-old conferences should probably be removed, rather than fixed for accessibility. You don’t need to delete such pages, just change their publication status to “Draft” and click Update. That way you can still access these draft pages in the system if you ever need to review them.
Please take some time to look through the web pages for which you or your unit are typically responsible for maintaining, and fix any existing accessibility issues that you may notice. Under our obligations, we may need to remove some content that does not meet standards, if it cannot be quickly corrected. We’re developing guidelines and strategies for handling “legacy” content that may be particularly intractable, but these are not yet finalized. In the meantime, we should do the best we can to make our published content accessible. I may be in touch with some of you to discuss specific issues with certain web sections or pages.
Thanks for your help, everyone! Any questions, please get in touch.