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LXD Style Guide

iPD’s Guide for Course Design & Development

Accessibility

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks should be written using descriptive link text. This means that the purpose of the link can be determined from the link text alone and a user would not need to rely upon additional context to determine the purpose or function of a link. If a link opens in a new window or leads to a specific document type, that should be indicated in the link text.

Headings/Page Structure

Heading structures will be concise, descriptive, and appropriately nested to impart information about the architecture of the course content. This standard applies to any and all Web pages, course content, documents, or interactives developed for learners. It’s also good practice to follow these guidelines for internal documents and those documents or resources shared with external partners.

Google Docs/Grackle

Developers will use the Grackle Docs add-on in Google Docs to check the accessibility of any and all documents that will be exported as PDF documents for learner consumption. If developers need to export a PDF from Google Docs, they will do so using the Grackle Docs add-on instead of the native export options found in the File menu in Google Docs.

Closed Captions

Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such. Captions are similar to dialogue-only subtitles except captions convey not only the content of spoken dialogue but also equivalents for non-dialogue audio information needed to understand the program content, including sound effects, music, laughter, speaker identification, and location.

Animation

Motion animation triggered by interaction can be disabled unless the animation is essential to the functionality or the information being conveyed.

Alt Text

All essential non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose. In cases of purely decorative imagery, the alt attribute should be left empty (or null) or with a single space in CourseArc.