Accessible electronic and information technology works for people using assistive technologies.
Screen readers read the text in a digital document aloud. Because a scan is an image, screen readers cannot read them. Most screen readers help users skim pages with shortcuts for headings, links, form fields and tables. See how to make several types of digital documents accessible at Accessible Digital Materials.
What screen readers need:
People who use screen readers may:
Videos shown in class or assigned to be viewed outside of class, videos on NIU websites and training videos need to have captions. The Disability Resource Center provides closed captioning services.
Captions are the spoken words in a video as the speaker says them in text on the same screen.
Audio description is a spoken narrative that describes important visual content that isn't conveyed by sound like actions or scene changes.
People who use captions may:
People who use audio descriptions may:
Information conveyed by color needs to be conveyed in an additional way, like an asterisk, a different texture (on a bar graph) or text.
Look for sufficient contrast between elements so the difference between them is perceivable without color.
Make targets like buttons and links large enough that they don't require a high level of accuracy to select.
When a mouse hovers over a link or you tab to a link, it should change color or be outlined so it's easy to see where the mouse focus is.
A person using a wheelchair should be able to fully operate the technology without assistance.
A person with disabilities is able to independently use electronic and information technology to
in the same time frame as those without disabilities.