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
2. Security settings is set to Allowed for Content Copying for Accessibility
3. Under the Advanced->Reading Options, the primary language is set correctly in the Language field.

Setting a title in Word

If you are using a Graduate School 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. Use the same title in your ETD.

Setting a title in a PDF viewer/editor

In a PDF viewer or editor, navigate to the File -> Properties tab and edit the "Title" field. Enter the title of your disquisition in sentence or title case, word-for-word as it appears in your document. Use the same title in your ETD.

Requirements:

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

If your document contains content that is in language other than English, you must set the language tag for that content. See page 21 of the 2019 PDF Testing and Remediation Guide on the Section 508 website for more information on this process.

Requirements:

1. All “Figures” have alternative text that describes its purpose/function.
2. All captions describe the purpose/function of associated images/objects.
3. Descriptive text conveys the purpose and/or function of the image/object.

If your document contains images (such as figures, schemes, etc.), these images must have alt-text that describes the image in addition to their title/caption. You can add alt-text to an image in Word by right-clicking the image and selecting Edit Alt Text... from the context menu. Alt-text that has been automatically generated by Word is not sufficient to meet this requirement. See page 20 of the 2019 PDF Testing and Remediation Guide on the Section 508 website and Microsoft's brief guide on alt-text for more information.

Alt-text appears when a user mouses over an image and can be read by screen readers to help those with visual impairments understand your content. Note that if your discipline places titles/captions below figures, screen readers will parse the alt-text before the title/caption.

Use an image's alt-text to concisely describe the information conveyed by the image. Body text and captions often focus on observations and interpretations made from information found in figures--include that information into your alt-text. Since the images contained in a disquisition often convey complex and sundry information, a critical focus on the purpose of this data and its relationship to your accompanying textual content will be necessary to concisely abbreviate the contents of your images.

Note that the NDSU Format Guidelines preclude using multiple images within a figure without subdivisions (subfigures). If you have disparate images you would like to present as a a singular figure, you must either divide the figure into subfigures or combine the images using an image editor, such as GIMP or MS Paint. See our formatting help page for more information on subfigures.

Example:

You are writing the results section of a chapter about utilizing UAVs to identify iron-deficiency chlorosis. You include a side-by-side comparison of a raw image from the UAV's camera alongside an scatter plot constructed from color-corrected spectral data captioned "Figure 5. Soybean experimental field plots for various cultivars and replications showing various levels of IDC symptoms, including standard calibration board, and accompanying scatterplot of corrected DGCI and SPAD meter readings using RCM."

The image's alt-text should include a description of all the data you want readers to take away from the image to understand your subsequent analysis and discussion, such as the placement and purpose of the calibration board, the arrangement of soybean crops, the shape of the scatterplot data, or the regression data present in the scatterplot.

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.

If your document contains URLs, the destination and purpose of the URL should be clear, regardless of whether they are 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 " or "The code found in this section can be found on our GitHub repository: https://github.com".

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. Text and Large Text (including images of text) pass with the Color Contrast Analyzer.

Text within your document should be black, with few exceptions. By contrast, page backgrounds must always be white, yielding a contrast ratio of 21:1 using these default settings. If you use colored text within your paragraphs, the contrast ratio cannot be less than 4.5:1. You may use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to test color contrast.

Additionally, if you overlay text onto an image or have created an image of text, that text must have a contrast ratio of 3:1 to its background. With the exception of images of text, text within an image itself is not required to meet this contrast ratio; however, we do recommend using high-contrast text in your figures, schemes, and other images in order to improve readability.

For more information, see the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by W3C and the 2019 PDF Testing and Remediation Guide on the Section 508 website, particularly pages 14 and 22.

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. The font in your disquisition is not required to follow these particular federal guidelines, but 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 optional, although the contrast settings are required for text that is overlaid on an image (e.g., using a text box) and for images of text.

• 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 3:1 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 the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by W3C.
• Color & complimentary elements – Whenever color is used to distinguish elements in a non-text item, 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.

• Set all major heading styles to be outline level 1.

In the style pane, right-click the appropriate style and select "Modify". In the Modify Style dialog box, click the Format dropdown box at the bottom left, and select "Paragraph". On the Indents and Spacing Tab of the Paragraph formatting dialog box, change the option for "Outline level:" to "Level 1". Confirm your changes in both these dialog boxes.

You can test whether your changes were correct by navigating to a major heading and mousing over the text. If your changes were successful, a chevron should appear before the text--clicking the chevron will collapse all the content in that chapter. If the chevron does not appear, the text may not be formatted using that style; click the text, then click the style in the style pane to apply the style.

Your document may have more than one major heading style. By default, documents created in the auto-numbered version of the template have two major heading styles: one for unnumbered major headings (such as those in the prefatory or appendix material) and one for numbered major headings (for chapter titles). Repeat the instructions above to set the outline level for all major heading styles.

Before you submit your document, apply the appropriate style to all major headings except the title of your disquisition and the major heading for the Table of Contents; see the next section for additional considerations on formatting the title of your disquisition and the Table of Contents major heading.

• Set the title of your disquisition and the major heading for the Table of Contents to be outline level 1.

There are two major headings in your document that must be formatted as major headings but should not appear in your Table of Contents: the title of your disquisition and the major heading for the Table of Contents itself. If you have set the title of your disquisition or the Table of Contents major heading to be in the same style as other major headings in your document, they will appear in your Table of Contents the next time it is updated. To resolve this issue, use the method below to create a new unlisted major heading style and apply it to these elements.

In order to set the title of your disquisition and the major heading for the Table of Contents to outline level 1, you can:

1. Create a new major heading style for these elements, or
2. Manually set the title of your disquisition and the major heading for the Table of Contents to be outline level 1.

To create this new style, click the title of your disquisition, then expand the style pane (double arrow at the right of the pane) and choose "Create a style" or open the styles window using CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+S and clicking the "A+" button at the bottom left. In the new style dialog box:

1. Give the style a name you will remember, such as "NDSU X: UNLISTED MAJOR HEADING".
2. Change the "Style based on:" field to the "NDSU 0" style in your template, such as "NDSU 0: MAJOR HEADING/CHAPTER TITLE" or "NDSU 0: UNNUMBERED MAJOR HEADING".
3. All other settings can be left as is.

If your cursor was in your title when you created the style, it should apply automatically; if not, click into your title text and then click the style in the style pane to apply it. Ensure the style was not applied incorrectly to other text. Then, click the Table of Contents major heading and apply the style.

To manually set the title of your disquisition and the major heading for the Table of Contents to be outline level 1, first select your title text, right-click your selected text, and then click Paragraph. Set the outline level to level 1 on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Paragraph formatting dialog box.

• Set all subheading styles to have an appropriate outline level.

In the style pane, right-click the appropriate style and select "Modify". In the Modify Style dialog box, click the Format dropdown box at the bottom left, and select "Paragraph". On the Indents and Spacing Tab of the Paragraph formatting dialog box, change the option for "Outline level:" to match its heading level. For example, first-level subheadings should be set to level 2, second-level subheadings should be set to level 3, and so forth. Confirm your changes in both these dialog boxes.

You can test whether your changes were correct by navigating to a subheading and mousing over the text. If your changes were successful, a chevron should appear before the text--clicking the chevron will collapse all the content in that section. If the chevron does not appear, the text may not be formatted using that style; click the text, then click the style in the style pane to apply the style.

Ensure that all subheadings are formatted with the appropriate style.

Your document will require further changes to be conformant with the Section 508 guidelines. See the shortlist in Your Responsibility as Author above for the most common issues, including adding a document title and alt-text for images.