7 Ways to Improve Your Web Accessibility

Easy ways to ensure all users can access your content.

Digital Accessibility Resources

W&M's digital accessibility website serves as an ongoing resource for the campus community, offering guidance, tools and best practices to help ensure digital content meets accessibility standards and reflects our values. Most accessibility principles can be implemented easily and will not impact your site’s overall look and feel.

At William & Mary, all digital content, including websites, must be accessible to everyone. Web accessibility ensures all users can effectively access and interact with digital content. People with different types of disabilities (visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive) often need specific adaptations for web content to be usable. The Cascade cleanup project now underway makes this focus on accessibility especially timely.

While University Web & Design handles most web accessibility centrally in our page templates, but there are a few essential ways you can make your webpages accessible for all web users:

Hyperlink Relevant Phrases

Simply using phrases like "click here" does not explain what the link is nor what it does. Ambiguous hyperlinks require users to read around the link to determine where it will take them.

Make Images Accessible

All of your images must have alt text which describes your image as succinctly as possible. Meaningful file names help give your images additional context. 

Use Headings

People using screen readers and other assistive technology can navigate webpages by headings. Your title serves as Heading 1. Use Heading 2s and Heading 3s throughout the page to provide additional hierarchical structure, especially for longer content.

Convert Documents to Webpages

Before uploading a new document into Cascade, ask yourself, "Can I turn this into a webpage?" If yes, go for it! If not, ensure your documents are accessible before uploading them to Cascade.

Add Captions to Videos

Embedded YouTube videos on the W&M website must have captions. 

Use the Accessibility Checker

When you submit edits, Cascade's built-in content checker includes a report of basic accessibility issues. Be sure to review and address any flagged items during this step.

Organize with Intention

Use tables for data, not for page formatting. You must also ensure your table is accessible by including table headers and a table caption. 

To learn more about how you can improve your web content and documents, check out our web accessibility help page.