Digital Accessibility Tip: Using Headings Appropriately

Looking to expand your knowledge of digital accessibility and learn quick strategies that you can easily integrate into your workflow? CATL’s blog post series on digital accessibility catalogues some helpful tips and tricks we’ve shared in our Teach Tuesday e-newsletter!

In this tip, we’ll highlight two common accessibility issues and how to fix them: missing headings and incorrect heading order. We’ll also look at how to apply heading styles in Word and Canvas.

The Heading Style dropdown menu in Microsoft Word with an example screenshot using “purpose” and "task” headings

Adding topical headings and subheadings to a document helps break up large blocks of text into smaller, more manageable chunks. This makes it easier for users to understand the page’s structure and navigate its contents, allowing readers to glean the main topic of a section at a glance. This is beneficial for all users but can be especially helpful for users who have disabilities related to reading comprehension, focus, or memory.

Headings have a second function, though, that may not be immediately obvious unless you’ve used a screen reader or have worked with HTML. Using built-in heading styles, like the ones in Microsoft Word or Canvas, adds invisible HTML tags that help users who rely on screen readers navigate your document. For this reason, it is also important to use heading styles in order without skipping heading levels.

Adding headings to your documents and webpages is a quick and easy way to make your learning materials more accessible to all!

Guidelines for Heading Accessibility

  • When adding headings to a document or webpage, use the built-in heading style options. Built-in heading styles add special HTML tags that make it easier for users who rely on assistive technology, such as screen readers, to navigate a page.
  • Don’t just use bold, font size, underlining, or color to denote headings. These styles can be perceived by sighted users but will not be interpreted as headings by a screen reader.
  • Most rich text editors have a heading style dropdown menu in the toolbar. Some applications also allow you to customize the heading font, size, and color. Set the heading level first, then customize the style.
  • Headings create hierarchy and are designed to be used in order. Heading 1 is the highest level of heading, followed by Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. Review the headings in your documents and webpages to make sure heading levels are not skipped.
  • Learn more about adding headings to a Word document or Canvas page. For PowerPoints, you can improve navigation by adding titles to your slides and checking the slide reading order.
  • To learn more about these concepts and see examples, visit the WebAIM guide on headings.

Looking for More Tips?

Explore even more quick tips in our Digital Accessibility Tips post, where you’ll find a growing list of strategies to help make your course materials more accessible.

Further Accessibility Training

Ready to dive deeper into digital accessibility? Essentials of Accessibility for Faculty and Staff is a free, self-paced, online course that will teach you the basics of digital accessibility and accessibility best practices for several key applications that UW-Green Bay employees may use in their daily work. We encourage you to self-enroll in the course to learn practical approaches for remediating digital accessibility issues in a variety of use cases and applications.

Connect with CATL

You are not alone in your accessibility journey! While CATL cannot advise on the legal specifications of Title II, instructors are always welcome to schedule a consultation with us or stop by our office (CL 405) to discuss the accessibility of your teaching materials.

Digital Accessibility Tip: Creating Accessible Tables

Looking to expand your knowledge of digital accessibility and learn quick strategies that you can easily integrate into your workflow? CATL’s blog post series on digital accessibility catalogues some helpful tips and tricks we’ve shared in our Teach Tuesday e-newsletter!

In this tip, we’ll explain when to use a table and how to use table captions and headers to improve a table’s accessibility.

A Canvas table with a caption and headers

Tables are a useful tool for sorting information in rows and columns, such as a course schedule, a feature comparison chart for two products, or a summary of data from a research experiment. Generally, tables should not be used to create page layouts and should be reserved for presenting tabular data.

You can make a table more accessible by adding a descriptive caption and row or column headers. Including a caption gives the table a descriptive title, helping students understand its purpose, while row and column headers provide clear structure and context, allowing screen readers to convey the information accurately to students who use assisted technology.

Creating accessible tables not only ensures compliance with digital accessibility guidelines, but it also makes it easier for all students to engage with your course content.

Additional Guidelines for Creating Accessible Tables

  • Don’t use screenshots of tables. A screen reader cannot read an image aloud, and putting the entirety of a table into an image’s alt text is not recommended. Instead, use the built-in table options in your document or webpage to create an accessible table.
  • Use a simple table structure. Avoid using nested tables and merged or split cells, which can cause issues for users who rely on screen readers or keyboard navigation.
  • Avoid leaving cells blank, which can mislead a user of a screen reader into thinking that there is information missing from the table or that the table has ended abruptly. Instead, use a placeholder like “N/A” for cells that have no data.
  • Learn more about building accessible tables in Canvas and adding table headers in Microsoft Word.
  • To learn more about these concepts and see examples, visit the WebAIM guide on tables.

Looking for More Tips?

Explore even more quick tips in our Digital Accessibility Tips post, where you’ll find a growing list of strategies to help make your course materials more accessible.

Further Accessibility Training

Ready to dive deeper into digital accessibility? Essentials of Accessibility for Faculty and Staff is a free, self-paced, online course that will teach you the basics of digital accessibility and accessibility best practices for several key applications that UW-Green Bay employees may use in their daily work. We encourage you to self-enroll in the course to learn practical approaches for remediating digital accessibility issues in a variety of use cases and applications.

Connect with CATL

You are not alone in your accessibility journey! While CATL cannot advise on the legal specifications of Title II, instructors are always welcome to schedule a consultation with us or stop by our office (CL 405) to discuss the accessibility of your teaching materials.

Digital Accessibility Tip: Adding Alt Text to Images

Looking to expand your knowledge of digital accessibility and learn quick strategies that you can easily integrate into your workflow? CATL’s blog post series on digital accessibility catalogues some helpful tips and tricks we’ve shared in our Teach Tuesday e-newsletter!

In this tip, we’ll discuss why adding alt text is important for making your images and charts more accessible, and how to write effective alt text.

An example pie chart in Microsoft Word with the alt text menu open

Alternative (alt) text is a short textual description of an image. The primary function of alt text is that it helps users who rely on screen readers understand the purpose of an image. The alt text for an image will be displayed if there are issues loading the image in an email client or browser. For websites, alt text is also used to improve the relevance of search engine results.

Guidelines for Writing Alt Text

  • Alt text should be descriptive, but concise. Use 150 characters or less to describe the image.
  • Avoid including phrases like “image of” or “photo of,” which can be redundant since a screen reader will announce a graphic or image.
  • If an image is purely decorative and does not convey any meaning, mark the image as decorative instead of adding alt text. This tells a screen reader to skip over the image when reading the page.
  • Alt text for charts and graphs should note the type of visualization, the type of data being depicted, and a brief description of the information conveyed. For more complex visualizations, consider including the raw data in an accompanying textual format, such as an accessible spreadsheet or data table.
  • Microsoft has an excellent guide on how to write alt text that also includes instructions for how to add or edit alt text in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc. After you’ve had a chance to review these recommendations from Microsoft, practice adding alt text to an image in Canvas too.
  • To learn more about these concepts and see examples, visit the WebAIM guide on alt text.

Looking for More Tips?

Explore even more quick tips in our Digital Accessibility Tips post, where you’ll find a growing list of strategies to help make your course materials more accessible.

Further Accessibility Training

Ready to dive deeper into digital accessibility? Essentials of Accessibility for Faculty and Staff is a free, self-paced, online course that will teach you the basics of digital accessibility and accessibility best practices for several key applications that UW-Green Bay employees may use in their daily work. We encourage you to self-enroll in the course to learn practical approaches for remediating digital accessibility issues in a variety of use cases and applications.

Connect with CATL

You are not alone in your accessibility journey! While CATL cannot advise on the legal specifications of Title II, instructors are always welcome to schedule a consultation with us or stop by our office (CL 405) to discuss the accessibility of your teaching materials.