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(updated 7/23/2025)
Your main accessibility responsibility as a manager of your library website is to make sure the content you are adding to your website (posts about library news, calendar events, documents) are meeting website accessibility standards.
LEANWI will make sure your underlying structure and code allows for screen reader, keyboard, and other navigation, but if you make changes to the layout of a page or when you add new information within the existing structure, there are still requirements and best practices that need to be followed to make sure an accessible site isn’t made inaccessible over time.
This tutorial discusses five key steps to maintaining accessible website content, specifically:
Responsibility #1: Use Alternative Text for images
Why
- Computers can’t (yet reliably) “see” and interpret images.
- Every image (i.e., post featured images), need to have a short description in the Alt Text box in attachment details.
- You can use the ASU Image Accessibility Creator to generate the alternative text.
Steps to take:
- Use simple feature images with alt text added.
Avoid:
- complex images with large amounts of text or very small text.
- using Canva posters with images of text as content for posts.
Training Documentation
Resources
Responsibility #2: Use appropriate Heading Structure
Why
- Headings tell a website user how information on a webpage is organized and what information is related.
- Screen readers need this to be encoded using proper heading styles used in proper order.
Steps to take:
- Use pre-formatted heading options to create navigation structure.
Avoid:
- Use “Heading x” formats to create visual emphasis in WordPress posts.
Training Documentation
Resources
- Using NVDA Screen Reader (NonVisual Desktop Access)
- Alternative: Narrator on Windows computers
Responsibility #3: Create and post accessible documents
Why
- PDFs are not natively accessible documents. They require lots of remediation to be usable by screen readers. They are also not mobile responsive.
- Google Docs/Sheets/Slides are often the easiest to post on a website, but they require an add-on to check for accessibility.
- The best practice is to post links to Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents to your website in “View Only” mode. Use SharePoint to store and link these files.
Steps to take:
- Review what documents you post to your website (board documents, policies, newsletters, etc.).
- Create documents in Microsoft products and use the built-in accessibility checker feature.
- Create documents in Google products with the Grackle Add-on to check accessibility.
Avoid:
- Creating documents in Canva.
- Creating documents without checking for accessibility.
- Exporting to PDF or scanning documents as a PDF and uploading to a website (without proper remediation).
Training Documentation
Responsibility #4: Know your website, your skills, and your limits
Steps to take:
- Review your website: understand what content your library is responsible for; understand who puts it there and how; understand how it is impacted by website accessibility requirements. Delete content you don’t need
(old posts, old images). - Participate in trainings. If you are unable to attend trainings, review documentation and videos and send questions to websitehelp@librarieswin.org
Avoid:
- Leaving old items on your website.
- Uploading large numbers of documents to your website
Training Documentation
- LEANWI Team Website Accessibility Posts
- Using NVDA Screen Reader
- Join the Website Accessibility Learning Group
Resources
Responsibility #5: Use the Accessibility Checker and ask for help
Steps to take:
- The LEANWI website team will be adding the Equalize Digital Accessibility Checker plugin to all LEANWI websites (first half of 2026).The tool reviews accessibility of pages and the website. It includes an “ask for review” feature for website managers.
- As always, don’t hesitate to ask for help!
Training Documentation
- Coming soon!