Finding Accessible Digital Content

Finding Accessible Digital Content

The University Library is committed to providing digital content in formats compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), international standards set by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). . But it is important to understand that not everything the Library provides is WCAG-compliant. The age, format, or licensing restrictions of a given digital item can impact its overall accessibility. As the Library continues to expand and improve our accessible offerings, it is important for instructors and students to also have the necessary tools to determine the accessibility of Library materials.

What do we mean when we say, “accessible digital content”?

“Accessible digital content” is content that can be used by individuals with visual, auditory, cognitive, or physical disabilities. Standards for accessible digital content are consistent regardless of the file format or medium and can be learned about more thoroughly by visiting the University of Illinois Navigating Digital Accessibility website. Common accessibility requirements include text compatibility with screen readers (an assistive software program that uses a speech synthesizer to read text aloud for users who cannot visually perceive content) as well as captions and/or text transcriptions for video and audio materials.

No file format is considered inherently accessible. HTML-based content is always the preferred choice when selecting accessible content, because they are usually compatible with screen readers. Other documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs can be accessible, but only if they are created using accessibility best practices.

PDFs typically have the most confusion surrounding their accessibility. Below are a few key considerations to remember when assessing PDFs.

  • The best way to ensure an accessible PDF is to create the PDF from an accessible source file. If you are creating a document in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, make sure that source file is accessible before converting it to the PDF format.
  • Many PDFs are created from scanning a print document. These scans are images of the original source material. Assistive technology, like screen readers, see these documents as images and cannot “read” the text within those images.
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a digital process that is often applied to PDF documents to increase their usability. It is important to understand OCR does not create a WCAG-compliant experience. At best, OCR can divide PDF material into “chunks” of identified information (text or images, for instance) but does not apply critical information like reading order or heading structures.
  • Manually converting a complex PDF document into a WCAG-compliant experience is a time-consuming process. However, simple PDF documents may be relatively easy to correct. If you do not have a source document to work from and would like to remediate a simple PDF yourself, CITL provides an excellent PDF Accessibility Guide.

Tips for finding WCAG-compliant materials in the library catalog:

  • When searching the library catalog, look for records noting the materials are “Available Online.”
  • Within the “Available Online” materials, different resource types identify “accessibility” in different ways:
    • E-books: How well an e-book complies with the Title II requirements depends on the publisher or vendor whose platform hosts the content. The Library maintains a resource that tracks e-book platform compliance and improvements.
    • Journal articles: When possible, catalog records for journal articles contain separate links labeled “download PDF” and “Read online.” Selecting the “read online” option usually provides an HTML-based format that supports assistive technology. If “download PDF” is the only available option, download the file and upload it to the campus queue to be made WCAG-compliant. This is the University of Illinois’ campus-wide service that applies WCAG standards to otherwise inaccessible materials. Please note, this service is intended for instructional content. Due to capacity constraints, requests are responded to in the order they are received.
    • Multimedia: The majority of multimedia platforms licensed by the University Library support captions for pre-recorded audio/video content. Additionally, all content created by library staff and housed on Media Space include captions and transcriptions.
    • Book Chapters: Book chapters are often available as individual files within a larger e-book record. It is common for these chapters to be presented online in an HTML-based format that supports assistive technology. When that is the case, use or share the permalink for that record to ensure WCAG-compliance. These book chapters, like journal articles, can also be downloaded as PDF documents. Please note: some publishers/vendors put page limits on the amount of content a user may download.  If downloading a PDF is the only option, do that, and then upload the file to the campus queue to be made WCAG-compliant.
    • Archival materials: Material within the Library’s digital repositories may be considered an exception to Title II requirements based on an item’s date of creation. If you are an instructor planning to assign content from our digital archives for your course, please contact us as soon as possible so we can ensure WCAG-compliance of those materials. 
  • If the material you are looking for is not available in our catalog from our collection, there are two options: