Accessibility

Occidental College is committed to ensuring that all individuals have equal access and opportunity to information and information technology, including students, faculty, staff, and visitors with disabilities. When websites are optimized for a person with a disability, they are much more likely to be clear and easy to navigate for all users. Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.

What can you do to make your website more accessible?

If you are a web editor for a department or office page on Oxy.edu, there are many easy steps you can take to help ensure the accessibility of your website.

• Make sure you add alternate text (alt-text) to all images that you upload and use on your site. You can also read UC Berkley's tips on writing great alt-text for more information.
• Don't add large amounts of text within any images. Instead, type the relevant information you want to include as text copy on the page, and add alt-text to the image itself.
• Caption all video content that you post to your page. Questions can be directed to Oxy's Disability Services team.
• When adding a link within your content, make sure the text that is linked is unique and descriptive. Instead of saying something like "click here to learn how to update your website," include a description of the webpage you are linking to within the link text itself. For example, "check out our tutorials on updating your website!"
• When posting documents to a website for download, especially if providing a document in the Portable Document Format (PDF), please consider providing the document as an accessible web page and/or in a text-based format such as Word (.doc extension).
• Provide a way for visitors to request accessible information or services by posting a telephone number or email address on your home page.