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LXD Style Guide

iPD’s Guide for Course Design & Development

Tag: WCAG

Language Tag

Make course elements written in a language other than English machine readable by marking up the part of the text where you use a World Language by creating a language tag with a correct lang attribute in it.

Images of Text

Text should be used to convey content, rather than images of text. Exceptions include logotypes (text that is part of a logo or brand name) and images that are essential to the information being conveyed (i.e. images of primary source documents). These exceptions must be accompanied by a text alternative for learners. Complex images, such as charts or graphs, can be used where necessary, but must include an image transcript / long description.

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.

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.

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.

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.