Web Accessibility at Rice

Rice University is committed to technology accessibility, including web sites that anyone can browse and use easily.  This section of the Information Technology (IT) web site provides resources for standards that contribute to the usability and accessibility of Rice’s official web sites.

The university also encourages accessibility for personal web sites published on Rice servers or any personal web site with “rice.edu” in its URL.

A search on “accessibility” on the Internet will reveal a wealth of resources, but following  Section 508 guidelines is the most important standard for web accessibility.  In addition, a few simple rules can help ensure basic accessibility for Rice web sites:

• Images – use an ALT tag
• Tables – use only for tabular data (such as schedules), not for layout
• Scalability – the page scales up or down to fit various sizes of windows without requiring vertical scrolling
• Font – use variable sizes (xs, s, m, l, xl) instead of fixed sizes (12pt, 18pt, etc.)
• Links – no "click here" links; use descriptive text so that the destination is apparent when read out of context.
• Cascading Style Sheets – separate the formatting from the content
• Accurate Markup – Use tags appropriately, not to create a look (i.e.:  use the H1 tag to identify the primary title on the page, not to make words stand out.)
• Skip Navigation – where appropriate, allow the reader to skip the navigation and go straight to the content.
• Color and Contrast – use distinct colors and contrast between text and background or images.  (Even non-colorblind readers can have difficulty reading red against green and vice versa.)