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Creating Accessible LibGuides

This guide presents information about how to create and format content in LibGuides to reach as many students as possible, including those using assistive technologies.

How to use this guide

The Creating Accessible LibGuides resource is based off of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3). Visit the WCAG 2.2 page on this guide for more information. 

The guide is broken up into pages that represent web content and functions:

Individual criterion from the WCAG 2.2 are organized onto the appropriate pages. Criterion that apply to more than one concept are on more than one page. 

The start of each page has a checklist for creators to review as they make their guides. Each item in the checklist links to the relevant criterion further down the page so creators can see more information.

There is a page at the end of the guide that contains the full checklist for easy review. The page is hidden from public view.

 

Conformance Levels

The checklist labels which criterion are Level A, Level AA, or Level AAA conformance. The levels refer to the conformance level (the adherence to the requirements), with Level A being the lowest level of conformance and Level AAA the highest. The goal is to reach Level A at a minimum, but whenever a creator can achieve a Level AA or Level AAA criterion, it is highly recommended. Criterion at different levels are often related to each other. The checklist therefore may have items that appear to be the same, but the higher the level the stricter the standard. 

Note: On a given page there may be more criteria at the bottom of the page than there are items in the checklist. Some criteria do not apply to LibGuides specifically but were still organized onto the individual pages. Other times these 'extra' criteria apply to LibGuides as a whole but not to the creation of individual guides, which is the focus of the checklist.

 

About this guide

The Capilano University Library's LibGuide Accessibility guide was created to help librarians and library staff members make accessible LibGuides. 

Attribution

"Copyright © 2020 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang). This software or document includes material copied from or derived from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2."