Information Services
Information Services
Contact us

Creating Accessible Online Content for Wikis

Guidance on creating accessible online content for wikis.

How accessible the Wiki is depends a great deal on how content is added to it. This guidance aims to help you add accessible content to the Wiki.

Accessibility Statement 

There is a centralised Wiki Accessibility Statement, in line with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. 

For more information about the regulations, please see The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

The definition of ‘accessible’ is based on that set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA

When adding your own content to a wiki page, it is important to ensure that you are not introducing errors to the site, and instead all of your added content should be as accessible as possible. Below are some things to consider when adding any new content to a wiki.

General Wiki Accessibility Considerations

  • Make sure you use the Wiki Heading styles to break the text into sections
  • When creating lists use the list tools options 
  • Ensure that all non-text items have meaningful alternative text descriptions e.g. graphs, charts or images all need meaningful alt-text, that can be understood by assistive technology
  • Ensure that any font colours or background colours you choose have a good contrast ratio, and are ideally a dark text on a light background
  • Avoid the use of continuous capitals or italics; use bold to emphasise text instead
  • Make sure any documents you are linking to from the Wiki are also accessible
  •  When creating tables make sure you use header rows
  • Ensure the font you choose is sans serif and at least 12pt in size
  • Don’t place text over an image as this can cause colour contrast issues and ensure that any images added don’t contain text as this would be text as an image and wouldn’t be accessible to screen reader users
  • If you are uploading any audio or video, ensure there are transcripts available and the video has human-corrected captions
  • Make sure you don’t convey any information by sound or colour only, for example, colour coding in a calendar could be inaccessible to some users, and this information should also be provided in another form, not just in colour coding
  • Write all of your content in a simple and easy to understand way, making sure to write out abbreviations in full the first time, for example
  • Avoid using naked URLs, or ambiguous links such as ‘click here’: all links should have clear text that states where the link goes
  • Additionally, try to have links that open in the same tab – if they are going to open a pop up or in a new tab, you should notify the user of this
  • Avoid using any flashing, scrolling or moving items, for example, a photo carousel that cannot be easily paused by the user

Questions?

If you have any further queries please contact Viki Galt, Head of Disability Information, contact details below.

Request an alternative format

If you require this document in an alternative format please contact Viki Galt, Head of Disability Information at viki.galt@ed.ac.uk

 

This article was published on