At McGill we aim to create an accessible, diverse, and inclusive campus, and this includes our digital spaces. Our websites must strive to be accessible and inclusive to all users.
What to do
Build and maintain your web pages with an attention to accessibility best practices.
Format your content (text, images, video and other media) so that users with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive disabilities can access it.
When working with external vendors, ensure accessibility requirements are communicated and acknowledged, see Web Services Custom or vendor-builtproject toolkit.
Provide easy access to alternate text formats of content.
Consider the experience of users in locations with limited internet access (e.g. slow internet connections, limited multimedia capacity, older browsers, small-screen devices).
Include a wide range of members of your diverse community when soliciting feedback regarding your website(s).
Ensure users with disabilities are included in your usability testing.
Make it easy for people to contact your department to report web accessibility problems.
Alternative Text – WebAIM - WebAIM is a non-profit organization based at Utah State University in Logan, Utah that provides web accessibility solutions.
Captioning videos: Microsoft Stream has a captioning feature, as does YouTube. If you are creating or uploading a video to social media, a quick Google search of the platform and “video captioning” (e.g. Instagram video captioning) should give you specific instructions for your platform.
Pro tip: always review automated transcripts for accuracy, and to insert the appropriate punctuation. Technology does not replace the need for human review!
An open source screen reader available for downloaded free of charge by anyone. As of 2023 NVDA is the second-most popular screen reader worldwide (behind JAWS).
