Accessibility

Did You Know?

Adobe Acrobat icon with a green 'thumbs up' superimposed at the top left

When creating a PDF from a Word document or PowerPoint file, you should always Save As and choose PDF as the type, rather than Printing to PDF. Printing to PDF removes all accessibility features, whereas Saving As a PDF will retain all of the tagging, heading structure, and other elements needed for an accessible PDF!

Accessibility Tips

Color Contrast Brings Clarity

10/13/2025

Four squares demonstrating color contrast between text and background: black text on yellow, white text on dark purple, dark blue text on medium green, and dark green on red.

Choosing colors with strong contrast is crucial for accessibility; good color contrast ensures that everyone can read and understand your documents and presentations easily. Poor contrast can make text or visuals difficult to distinguish for people with visual impairments, people who are fatigued, students in the back of the class, or individuals reading in challenging lighting.

For example, red is often used for emphasis or to call out portions of text. The original red Microsoft used was 100% red. Now, the standard “red” is set to a less-saturated 93% to ensure a more vivid appearance. See the difference?

100% Red
93% Red

Check Your Color Contrast Easily

The Colour Contrast Analyser tool is available from the EMS self-service support app—download and use this tool to evaluate and improve your work.

Prioritizing good color contrast is essential for creating inclusive documents and presentations. Small changes, like choosing colors with more contrast, can make a big difference for everyone, from the student sitting in the back row to a colleague reviewing a presentation in dim lighting.

Accessible Links make things friendlier for everyone!

10/06/2025

When sharing a link, it’s tempting to just paste a URL, but for screen reader users (who often rely on link and heading text to navigate), it can be incredibly frustrating to listen to “h-t-t-p-s-colon-slash-slash…” a bunch of times. Linking to words like “Click here” or “read more” is also frustrating. To give you a sense of what I mean, I created this audio file to share how it sounds to navigate the links on this “fake” web page (below) with assistive software.

screen shot of fake Berkshire Hathaway page that has a lot of 'click here' links

Instead of offering entire URLs, link to text that tells what the item is, for example EMS Home Page rather than just offering the address. If you expect folks to print what you’re giving them, consider using a short link, like those offered through Bitly or TinyURL (Office 365 has a built-in link shortener, as well).

Let’s keep our clicks clever and considerate!

The Power of Accurate Video Captioning

09/25/2025

Did you know? Captions aren’t just words on a screen—they’re a gateway to understanding! Captions enhance student learning and make course material more accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing, those acquiring English, and anyone studying in a distracting environment.

For second-language learners, well-crafted captions help bridge language gaps. They allow viewers to follow along, boost vocabulary, and improve comprehension. Plus, accurate captions help everyone catch details they might miss otherwise.

Can’t I just use automatic captioning? Automatic captioning often struggles with accents, background noise, and technical jargon, leading to errors. Would you want a caption to say “Matthew, chapter 2, verse 59” instead of “MatSe 259?” Mistakes may cause confusion for viewers and affect the accuracy of your material. For a hilarious take on auto-captioning, check out this Caption Fail video!

Kaltura has automatic captioning of all videos, and captions are easy to fix in that system if they do go awry!

Bottom line: Accurate captioning benefits everyone. Next time you share a video, make sure your captions are spot-on!

A Picture is worth 1,000 words…unless you can’t see it

09/22/2025

Many programs, like PPT and Word, allow you to add alternative text to images that provide a brief description of the image. People often think that adding alternative text only assists the completely blind. But there are other conditions that make alternative text useful to individuals. See the examples below for just a few. Want to experience it yourself? Try the Lighthouse for the Blind’s Visual Simulator!

Ocean CO2 fluxes: positive numbers indicate flux out of the ocean.

This image shows Ocean CO2 fluctuations. Positive numbers indicate flux out of the ocean.

Blurred Vision

Someone with blurred vision, however, will see this image.

Blurry version of Ocean CO2 fluxes: numbers are unreadable and map looks like blobs

Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI)

Someone who has CVI could see this version of the image.

CVI version of Ocean CO2 fluxes: image is doubled and offset, making it impossible to read

Macular Degeneration and Blurred Vision

Individuals with macular degeneration (image 1) or tunnel vision (image 2) would see something completely different again.

macular degeneration version of Ocean CO2 fluxes: there is a big grey spot over most of the image

tunnel vision version of Ocean CO2 fluxes: most of the image is black and you can only see a small area in the middle

When you think about alternative text for your images, consider the wide range of folks (not all of whom are blind) who might see them!

Peer reviewed and screen reader approved: Linking directly to library articles

08/25/2025

When sharing academic articles with students, accessibility matters just as much as content. Instead of uploading PDFs to Canvas, instructors should link directly to peer-reviewed literature available through Penn State’s library databases.

Why? The Libraries are actively working with database vendors to ensure compliance with the latest DOJ accessibility regulations. Linking to articles ensures that students can access content using assistive technologies—and keeps you in compliance without the extra work of remediating PDFs.

How? It's easy! First, check out the library's page about how to build durable links from their databases. Then, you'll do one of two things:

If the instructions say to copy a URL into the link tool widget, Just add the following to the start of the URL:
http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=
If there is no URL, but a DOI is given, just put the following in front of the DOI:
https://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://doi.org/

Pro Tip: Use stable, library-provided links whenever possible. It’s a win for accessibility, copyright, and your sanity.