Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility

Accessibility is the practice of making web pages easier to navigate and read. It is intended to assist those with disabilities, but it can be helpful to all readers.

Article structure

• Headings should be descriptive and in a consistent order (for example: See also - References - External links).
• Avoid using heading titles with the same name as one of the form names on the page, like "search" or "go".
• Avoid putting links in section headings, unless the link text is the only text in the title. Screen readers will stop reading the heading title when they encounter a link, and if the link is the first part of the heading title, they will only read the link text. For example, a heading title of "The Simpsons" will be read as "The", and a heading title of "hackers in popular culture" will be read as "hackers".

Text

• When editing, never break up a line unless absolutely necessary, as the easiest way to edit with a screen reader is to navigate line by line.
• Use as little code as possible, so the text in the edit window is easier to read (for example: don't use [[clock|clocks]] when [[clock]]s will work)
• Spelling and grammar errors can dramatically affect the sound of the text ("initative" instead of "initiative"), which can make the text more difficult to read.
• Create good link descriptions, especially for external links. (avoid "click here!" or "this" kinds of links)
• Don't use a unicode-specific character where a windows-1252 character would convey the same meaning. Screen readers without unicode support will read an unknown character as a question mark, and even in the latest version of jaws for windows, the most popular screen reader, unicode characters are very difficult to read.
• Don't use techniques that require physical action to provide information, such as tooltips or other "hover" text.

Color

Several readers of Wikipedia may be partially or fully color blind. Ensure that color is not the only way used to convey important information. Especially, do not use colored text unless its status is also indicated using another method such as italic emphasis or footnote labels.

Tables

Screen readers and other web browsing tools make use of specific table tags to help users navigate the data contained within them.

Use the correct wikitable pipe syntax to take advantage of all the features available. See meta:Help:Tables for more information on the special syntax used for tables.

{| summary="A description of the data to be found in the table."
|+ [caption]
|-
! [header cell]
| [normal cell]
|}

• Caption ( |+ ) - A caption is a table's heading, describing its nature [1].
• Summary - The summary can provide a longer description of the table's purpose and structure for non-visual browsers [2].
• Row & column headers ( ! ) - Like the caption, these help present the information in a logical structure to visitors. They can have the headers read first, and then navigate the related data [3].

Avoid using tables for layout purposes only.

Images

• Images should contain a caption, either using the built in image syntax or a secondary line of text. The caption should concisely describe any information contained in the image.
• Where possible, any charts or diagrams should have a text equivalent, or should be well-described so that users who can't see the image can gain some understanding of the concept.
• Detailed image descriptions, where not appropriate for an article, should be placed on the image description page, with a note saying that activating the image link will lead to a more detailed description.

References

• . ISBN 0-7357-1150-X http://www.joeclark.org/book/. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |Month=, |Location=, |Coauthors=, and |Edition= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |First= ignored (|first= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Last= ignored (|last= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)

See also

• Creating Accessible Tables, from WebAIM
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Usability