Accessibility

Website Accessibility As we design and add content to our websites, we need to keep in mind that some visitors to our websites may have a disability that makes navigating and reading the website a challenge. There are things we can do to make our websites more user-friendly and we should all make every effort to follow these guidelines. This includes teachers' Google Sites websites.

Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, by people with disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users have equal access to information and functionality. (You can view this webpage if you would like more information: @https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php)

The one area where you, as a user of Google Sites, can ensure that you are making your site accessible to all user, is when you add graphics. When you received Google Sites training from me and learned how to add images, one thing I pointed out is that you must add Alt text to every image you add to your website.

Alt text (alternative text) is a word or phrase that can be inserted as an attribute in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document to tell Web site viewers the nature or contents of an image. The alt text appears in a blank box that would normally contain the image.

Many of you will remember seeing a small text box popping up when you hovered over an image. That is the alt text. Here are two examples:

Though we don't most often see the alt text ourselves, visually handicapped visitors to websites have screen reader software that reads the contents of a webpage to the visitor. This includes the alt text on any images which is why it is important that we always include it.

The content of the alt text you add is important. Here are some guidelines: Below are two examples of alt text: The first is an incomplete description. The next gives an accurate description of what is depicted in the photo.
 * Be accurate and descriptive, but succinct - the description should thoroughly describe what the image is displaying. This can usually be done with one sentence or just a few words.
 * Do not use phrases "this is a picture of...", or " graphic of..." in your description.
 * Avoid using abbreviations and acronyms - spell it out
 * For our (NHCS) websites (as well as social sites such as Twitter and Facebook), do not include the name of students in your alt text (or in the name of the file that you upload). For example, instead of saying "Jennifer uses counters to solve a math problem," just say "student uses counters to solve a math problem."

To add alt text when you upload an image to Google Sites, type the description in the **Alt text** box after you have uploaded and selected the image you will be adding. Though it says "(optional)," you should always include alt text for all your images unless they are only decorative. If in doubt, add the alt text!

If you want to check to see if your images have alt text and add it where necessary, when in edit mode on a page on your website. click on the image and then click on "Change" that appears as an editing option.

Under "Text to display" should be your alt text. Add or edit your alt text here. Click OK button when done.

If you have any questions about alt text, or would like my help, let me know.

//I would like to note one other thing about image use since we are on that topic....//

Any images you use on your website should either be those you took or created yourself or are from a website that allows you to use them for free. Just because you find them doing a web search or in Google images does not mean they are free for use. It is very important that we teach and model ethical and responsible image use. Google Image Search is a handy tool for finding images, but much or most of what will appear in a search is not free to use. Visit this page for search strategies you can use to find copyright-friendly images: @http://www.nhcs.net/parsley/Resources/GoogleImages.htm Website Accessibility

As we design and add content to our websites, we need to keep in mind that some visitors to our websites may have a disability that makes navigating and reading the website a challenge. There are things we can do to make our websites more user-friendly and we should all make every effort to follow these guidelines. This includes teachers' Google Sites websites.

Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, by people with disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users have equal access to information and functionality. (You can view this webpage if you would like more information: @https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php)

The one area where you, as a user of Google Sites, can ensure that you are making your site accessible to all user, is when you add graphics. When you received Google Sites training from me and learned how to add images, one thing I pointed out is that you must add Alt text to every image you add to your website.

Alt text (alternative text) is a word or phrase that can be inserted as an attribute in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document to tell Web site viewers the nature or contents of an image. The alt text appears in a blank box that would normally contain the image.

Many of you will remember seeing a small text box popping up when you hovered over an image. That is the alt text. Here are two examples:

Though we don't most often see the alt text ourselves, visually handicapped visitors to websites have screen reader software that reads the contents of a webpage to the visitor. This includes the alt text on any images which is why it is important that we always include it.

The content of the alt text you add is important. Here are some guidelines: Below are two examples of alt text: The first is an incomplete description. The next gives an accurate description of what is depicted in the photo.
 * Be accurate and descriptive, but succinct - the description should thoroughly describe what the image is displaying. This can usually be done with one sentence or just a few words.
 * Do not use phrases "this is a picture of...", or " graphic of..." in your description.
 * Avoid using abbreviations and acronyms - spell it out
 * For our (NHCS) websites (as well as social sites such as Twitter and Facebook), do not include the name of students in your alt text (or in the name of the file that you upload). For example, instead of saying "Jennifer uses counters to solve a math problem," just say "student uses counters to solve a math problem."

To add alt text when you upload an image to Google Sites, type the description in the **Alt text** box after you have uploaded and selected the image you will be adding. Though it says "(optional)," you should always include alt text for all your images unless they are only decorative. If in doubt, add the alt text!

If you want to check to see if your images have alt text and add it where necessary, when in edit mode on a page on your website. click on the image and then click on "Change" that appears as an editing option.

Under "Text to display" should be your alt text. Add or edit your alt text here. Click OK button when done.

If you have any questions about alt text, or would like my help, let me know.

//I would like to note one other thing about image use since we are on that topic....//

Any images you use on your website should either be those you took or created yourself or are from a website that allows you to use them for free. Just because you find them doing a web search or in Google images does not mean they are free for use. It is very important that we teach and model ethical and responsible image use. Google Image Search is a handy tool for finding images, but much or most of what will appear in a search is not free to use. Visit this page for search strategies you can use to find copyright-friendly images: @http://www.nhcs.net/parsley/Resources/GoogleImages.htm