Document Accessibility

• Library 201 Data Visualization Lab - 16 seats, remote or in-person
• Virtual Open Lab - 20 seats, remote only
• QBB Instructional Design Center Open Lab - 7 seats, in-person only
• AGHC 240 General Purpose Classroom - 48 seats, in-person only
• Minard 332 General Purpose Classroom - 15 seats, in-person only
• Memorial Union 250G Bison Information Network Departmental Lab - 16 seats, in-person only

An accessibility checker tests the features of your PDF and creates a report about which tests passed and which failed. We recommend using the PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC) to test your document, as it offers the most comprehensive tests and provides a detailed report on issues that are labeled according to their WCAG test. Furthermore, it's straightforward to use, and you can see where any issues are in your document simply clicking them in the detailed report. However, the report PAC generates may be difficult to parse without some familiarity with WCAG requirements.

PDF editors like Foxit PDF Editor or Adobe Pro have built-in accessibility checkers, and generally show where issues are in your document. Since you're already in the editor, using these checkers to make changes is also convenient. Compared to PAC, these checkers are less complete, and you may find that some issues are only vaguely defined. Additionally, some issues may not be checked; for example, neither Foxit nor Adobe will look for Unicode character compliance. Since you will likely be using a PDF editor to remediate your document, using their built-in checkers can be a handy way to become more familiar with the program, and a PDF editor may offer a more accessible (!) pathway to begin correcting your document over PAC.

If you are using Word to draft your document, Word's built-in checker is useful for pointing out some missing requirements, like alt-text for images. Unfortunately, it has the distinct disadvantage of not checking your final PDF--it's possible for your Word document to be fully accessible but for your PDF to fail the same checks. To avoid this particular issue, see the entry in our knowledge base on converting your document to PDF.

In conclusion, we recommend using multiple types of accessibility checkers to test your disquisition, as they all have their merits that can cover for another's shortcomings.

Requirements:

1. The PDF has a descriptive file name which identifies the document, or its purpose and the Initial View is set to show Document Title. (WCAG 2.4.2)
2. Security settings is set to Allowed for Content Copying for Accessibility. (WCAG 2.0.0)
3. Under the Advanced->Reading Options, the primary language is set correctly in the Language field. (WCAG 3.1.1)

Resolution:

1. Copy your disquisition's title into the Title field under PDF properties.
2. Set the document's primary language in the PDF's reading options.

Open your PDF in a PDF viewer or editor and navigate to the File -> Properties tab. Enter the title of your disquisition into the Title field word-for-word as it appears in your document; the title should be in sentence or title case, not ALL CAPS.

If you are using a Graduate School Word template, your document title will be set to the template default (e.g., "NDSU Disquisition Template with Non-numbered Headings"). You can change this in Word by navigating to the File -> Info tab and editing the "Title" field. Enter the title of your disquisition in sentence or title case, word-for-word as it appears in your document.

If you are creating a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, use the same title in your ETD on ProQuest.

Tutorials:

Video: Create PDF Metadata in Adobe

Requirements:

1. When viewing the Tags Pane, tags are visible. (WCAG 4.1.1)
2. Content is tagged correctly. (WCAG 4.1.1)
3. The document is bookmarked in a logical reading order. (WCAG 2.4)

Resolution:

In Word, document structure tags and bookmarks are automatically handled through the style settings in our template. If you have altered the style settings in your document, use the style settings in our templates as a reference. Bookmarks for headings are generated from the outline level set in the headings' paragraph settings. For example, major headings should be "level 1", first-level subheadings should be "level 2", and so on. Additionally, printing your document to PDF or using 3rd party plugins to make your PDF may cause your PDF to be created without tags or bookmarks; see our PDF conversion guide for instructions on creating your PDF with all its features intact.

At this time, we do not recommend using LaTeX to produce PDFs. If your document was made in LaTeX, you may need to tag your documentmanually in a PDF editor or pay for a subscription to Overleaf; more information on tagging can be found at the LaTeX Tagging Project. See our knowledge base entry for additional considerations on equations in LaTeX PDFs.

Tutorials:

Video: Tagging a PDF

Video: Adding Alt-text to Tags

Text: Section 508 Testing & Remediation Guide

Requirements:

1. Text within images should be at least the same size the font in the paragraph text. (WCAG 1.4)
2. If an image must be scaled to fit onto a page, the text cannot be smaller than 4 pts less than font in the paragraph text.* (WCAG 1.4)

Resolution:

1. Generate images with appropriately sized, high-contrast text.
2. Use high-resolution images to avoid pixelation.
3. Scale images to fit margin-to-margin; place wide aspect images on landscape pages.

We recommend making text in images at least as large as the text in your body paragraphs, but images frequently employ smaller-than-normal text in order to fit onto a page. If you must reduce the size of an image to fit it onto a page, the text in that image must still meet the minimum size for all text in your document, which is no less than 4 pts smaller than the paragraph text. Therefore, be mindful of how the image will fit onto a page when creating it, and whether the text within that image will still meet these requirements.

If an image with text is smaller than the width of the page, we generally recommend scaling it to fit margin-to-margin unless doing so would cause other issues. If an image is wider than it is tall, consider placing the image on a landscape page instead. If a figure is composed of subfigures, consider breaking the subfigures out into individual figures that could be scaled larger.

See our requirements on color contrast for text colors in your images.

^{*Our minimum font size assumes Times New Roman font is used, but font size may vary across typefaces. If you elect to use a different font from our list of approved fonts, the smallest font will be equivalent to Times New Roman size 8. If you're unsure whether text in your document is large enough, create a text box near the text in question and copy the text into the box, then set the font to Times New Roman size 8.}

Requirements:

1. All images, such as figures or schemes, have alternative text that describes its purpose/function. (WCAG 1.1.1)
2. Captions describe the purpose/function of associated images/objects. (WCAG 1.1.1)
3. Descriptive text conveys the purpose/function of images/objects. (WCAG 1.1.1)
4. Equations made with the Word equation editor, non-Unicode characters, and other items tagged as <formula> have alternative text that describes their purpose/function. (WCAG 1.1.1)
5. In-line equations, variables, symbols, or functions outside display equations should use Unicode characters. (WCAG 3.1.2)

Resolution:

1. Add alt-text to images in Word or a PDF editor.
2. Nest a <P> tag in the <Formula> tag, and write alt-text in the Actual Text field. This content can be accessed by NVDA.
3. Replace in-line equations, variables, symbols, functions, etc. in paragraph text, titles, notes, tables, etc. with Unicode characters.

See our knowledge base entry on tables, figures, schemes, etc. for more information on writing alt-text for images, including instructions for Word. See our knowledge base entry on equations for more information about writing alt-text for equations and tips for making machine-readable equations that don't require alt-text.

Tutorials:

Video: Tagging a PDF

Video: Adding Alt-text to Tags

Text: Section 508 Testing & Remediation Guide

Text: Adding Alt-text to Formula Tags

Requirements:

1. Table headers and data cells are appropriately tagged. (WCAG 4.1.1)
2. Table scope is set correctly for rows, columns, and headers. (WCAG 1.3.1)

Resolution:

Tables in your disquisition should have headers, those headers should correspond to one or more rows or columns of content, and the headers should be tagged <TH>. Creating a header is more than just putting text into the first cell in a column or row--in Word, you need to set headers in the table's properties. The relationship between a header and its columns or rows is called its scope--"how much of this table is covered by this header?" If you have complex tables, where headers may span multiple columns, or if you use nested headers, the scope of those headers may not translate into your PDF and you will need to edit the table's scope in a PDF editor.

Issues with table headers and scope will most commonly show up in the PDF Accessibility Checker under section 1.3.1. After running PAC on your document, use the guide and videos below to remediate your document. Issues with tags are most often a symptom of a larger problem and do not have a common root.

Tutorials:

1. Video: Table Tags
2. Video: Table Scope
3. Text: Setting Table Headers

Requirements:

1. The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. (WCAG 1.4.3)
2. Large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1. (WCAG 1.4.3)
3. Figures, schemes, and other images have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1. (WCAG 1.4.11)

Resolution:

We recommend the WebAIM Contrast Checker to test color contrast of colored elements against their adjacent colors; generally in your disquisition, this is a color vs. its white page background. Use the eyedrop tool present in the color picker on the WebAIM page or image editing programs such as Microsoft Paint to find the hex or RBG values of your colors.

Text within your document should be black, with few exceptions. By contrast, page backgrounds must always be white; black text on a white background yields a contrast ratio of 21:1. If you use colored text within your paragraphs, the contrast ratio cannot be less than 4.5:1. Additionally, if you overlay text onto an image or have created an image of text, that text must have a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 to its background. Colored text that is at least four points larger than the paragraph text, such as text in an image, may have a contrast ratio of 3:1.

We recommend (but do not require) a minimum contrast of 7:1 and 4.5:1 for large text. For colored elements in images, such as a trace in a graph, we recommend a minimum contrast of 4.5:1.

Tutorials:

Text: Section 508 Testing & Remediation Guide (pages 14, 22)

Text: WCAG Contrast Ratios for Dyslexic Readers

Requirements:

1. Meaning of color or other sensory characteristics is duplicated in text.

If your document contains images that employ color to differentiate elements or express meaning, that meaning must be explained in text, such as within the item's caption or within the paragraph text.

As detailed in our formatting wiki, colored text is acceptable in your disquisition under certain circumstances. If you have employed colored text, such as to match colors used in an accompanying figure, the purpose of that coloring should be made clear either in the item's caption or within the paragraph text.

Requirements:

1. Link names describe destination/purpose or describe context.
2. Links have unique names.
3. Tab order matches the visual/logical order of interactive elements.

While embedded URLs are generally recommend, our guidelines require that URLs be formatted without color or underline, which makes them indistinguishable from other text; as such, we instead recommend that raw URLs are provided. When you include a URL, the destination and purpose of the URL should be clear, regardless of whether it's a plain text URL or embedded in text.

Case 1: Within your bibliography, you have included links to the DOI page for your citations. An explanation or description is unnecessary for these URLs because it's clear from the context of the section itself that the URL is a link to the source material.

Case 2: In an appendix section titled "APPENDIX B. CODE USED IN CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS", you have included a link to the GitHub repository containing the code you used for one of your experiments. In this case, the destination and purpose of that GitHub link should be made clear. For example, including the link in a sentence is sufficient: "The code found in this section can be found on our GitHub repository: https://github.com".

Since URLs should be formatted in black font with no underlining, we do not recommend using embedded links as they cannot be distinguished from other text without mousing over them. For example, in the sentence "The code found in this section can be found on our GitHub repository " we recommend including the raw URL instead, as given in the previous example.

Requirements:

1. The tag’s property associated with the language change shows the selection’s language or corresponding two-letter code.

Resolution:

1. Use a PDF editor to edit the tags of non-English text. You may need to re-tag the text in these sections to avoid tagging English text incorrectly.

If your document contains content that is in language other than English, change the language in the properties of that content's tag. This requirement does not apply to binomens or other scientific names.

Tutorials:

1. Video: Tag a PDF with Multiple Languages
2. Text: Section 508 PDF Testing and Remediation Guide (page 21)

Font – There is inconclusive evidence that serifs impact readability for readers with normal or impaired vision; however, federal regulations (ADA, ABA) proscribe sans serif fonts in federal communications. While your disquisition must is bound by federal law on other accessibility settings, your disquisition is not a federal communication and you are not required to use a sans serif font. However, you can create a compliant document using the following sans serif fonts from our list of approved fonts.

• Arial (size 10)
• Microsoft Sans Serif (size 10)
• Tahoma (size 10)
• Trebuchet MS (size 10)
• Verdana (size 10)

These settings are stricter versions of our existing accessibility requirements.

• Font – Use the same consistent sans serif font in figures, schemes, or other non-text items that is used in the body paragraph text, with a size not smaller than the body paragraph text at 100% view size/zoom.
• Color contrast – Whenever color is used in a non-text item, ensure there is a contrast ratio of 7:1 or greater with the surrounding element. For example, a black trace (#000000) in a line graph against a white background provides a contrast ratio of 21:1, whereas a green trace (#00FF00) against a white background provides a contrast ratio of only 1.37:1. The higher the contrast, the more visually distinct each element will be. (You may use this site to test color contrast.) For more information, see WCAG 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced).
• Color & complimentary elements – Whenever color is used to distinguish elements in an image, use additional indicators such as symbols or patterns to differentiate visual elements. For example, in a line graph with two traces and a white background, one trace could be red (#AA0000) with a dotted line and the other trace could be dark teal (#008080) with a dashed line.