Accessibility Hub

At Austin Peay State University, we are committed to ensuring that everyone has access to the same information. Our website standards are based on ADA Compliance (WCAG standards).

The Goal: Ensure all content serves a clear purpose—educating or helping our visitors. This means making information easy to read, free of complicated jargon, and accessible to all users, regardless of how they navigate the web.

Heading Hierarchy:

Proper heading structure is the single most important thing you can do for accessibility and SEO.

Why it matters:

• For Screen Readers: Users with visual impairments often "scan" a page by skipping from heading to heading to find what they need (similar to how you scan a newspaper).

• For Search Engines and AI: Google and AI tools read your headings to understand the "outline" of your content.

• For Everyone: It "chunks" your content, making it easier to read and understand.

Think of your webpage like a Term Paper:

• If you wrote a paper without an outline or a plan, it would be a mess of unstructured text.

• The same applies to a webpage. Without headers, there is no clear path for the visitor to follow.

The Rules:

1. H1 is the Title: There is only one H1 per page (the main title).

2. H2 are Major Topics: These are the big sections of your "paper."

3. H3 are Sub-topics: These fall inside the H2 sections.

4. Don't Skip Levels: Never jump from an H2 to an H4 just because you like the font size better.

   • Why? This breaks the "Expected Behavior" standard. It confuses screen readers and search engines into believing they have missed a section or that information was left out.

Images & Alternative Text

Alt Text is a short description attached to an image that tells non-visual users what the image contains and why it is there.

How to write good Alt Text: Alt Text must provide context. It isn't enough to just name the subject; you must paint the picture.

• Bad: "Student" or "Student on bed."

• Good: "A student studying on their bed in their dorm room." (This explains who, where, and what is happening).

The Policy on Graphics (Text in Images)

Avoid using text-heavy graphics whenever possible.

While flyers and social media graphics look good on Instagram, they cause major problems on the APSU website:

1. Invisibility: Search engines (Google) cannot read text trapped inside an image.

2. Accessibility: Screen readers cannot read the text inside an image.

3. Mobile Issues: Large graphics often shrink down on mobile phones, making the text too small to read.

The Rule: If you must post a graphic containing information (like a flyer), you must also type all that information out as plain text on the page. Failing to do so essentially hides that information from a large part of our community.

Deep Dive Guidelines

For more specific rules on file formats and links, please reference these detailed guides:

• Should I use a PDF or a Webpage?

  • Learn when to upload a file and when to create a page.

• Hyperlink Behavior & Internal Linking

  • Rules for "Open in New Window," labeling links, and how to link internal files so they don't break.

• Usage of AI Images

  • Our policy on using AI-generated imagery for campus and creative content.