Also if you're in any way tempted to go in any flood water (I have no idea why but some people do seem to want to) then DON'T! There can be hidden debris and it is not at all clean water.

We know a lot of our followers use Academia Edu - definitely worth reading the new Ts and Cs before deciding whether to accept them... bsky.app/profile/npos...

Offer users multiple ways of understanding your content. This includes graphics, charts, summaries of long documents, icons added to headings and links, and alternatives for numbers. These things can help everyone, especially people with cognitive disabilities.

Don't forget transcripts for video and audio. These will help many people, including blind users and low-vision users, deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people with ADHD, and people with audio-processing disorders. Transcripts also benefit search engines, people in quiet spaces, and people in a hurry.

When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.

"Introduction to Web Accessibility" is a free course designed for people of all roles and all experience levels, so regardless of your background, there's something you can learn here. www.edx.org/course/web-a...

And that's how you do alt text for text as image posts!

Some tips on preparing to teach our VI students at York. Our lecturers and students have provided insights that have helped us to develop our practice further!

Our latest blog post is up! In this post, Lilian @xlearn.bsky.social provides the key points for any university staff preparing to teach blind or partially blind students this academic year: blogs.york.ac.uk/digital-acce...

If you have an election results chart, the alt text needs to communicate the results. "Election results" is not enough. The same rules apply for alt text for images of weather charts. "Weather chart" doesn't cut it and doesn't convey what the chart is actually saying to users.

York Departments, Schools, Groups, academics etc - if you have the chance, please point incoming students towards the Library's Quick Start Guide to help get them up to speed with all we can offer them: www.york.ac.uk/library/visi... #UoYTips

University of York people! Whether staff or student, the new academic year is rushing towards us! Our lovely colleagues in the Digital Education Team have once again created their start of semester guide, with all you need to know about the VLE and more elearningyork.wpcomstaging.com/2025/08/15/s...

Important reminder about the emergency alert test this weekend! A useful thread to know what to expect and how to report any accessibility problems.

Live captions help so many people! Let's make them the conference norm

Looking for a digital accessibility job? Or looking to hire someone for an accessibility role? A11yjobs is a digital accessibility job board. www.a11yjobs.com

#UoY University of York teaching staff - check out our roundup of upcoming digital accessibility training:

Uni of York teaching staff! As we approach the start of another academic year, we have a smorgasbord of of digital accessibility training available to you. Sessions are online - most will be recorded, so if you're interested but can't attend, do sign up to receive the recording and materials 1/

More properly phrased as "Sorry for the delay on this train - this was because neither our trains or railway stations are properly accessible."

Get in the habit of bringing up accessibility at meetings, in stand-ups, and in demos. Bring up things you've done to address accessibility. Likewise, don't be afraid to ask, "Have we tested this on a keyboard?" or "What's the experience like on a screen reader?"

We're pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being ridiculously good at accessible content. But we haven't found out what that is yet rnib.in/AccessibleSocialMediaGuide

Beware of companies promising to make sites completely accessible, compliant, and immune from lawsuits with just a few lines of code. This just isn't possible. Disabled users have long said these tools don't actually help them, and can often make things worse.

HTML Developers: Please Consider – in the year of 2025 html5accessibility.com/stuff/2025/0... #a11y #HTML

There is a wide ranging and really interesting selection of panels and presentations in this conference - do see if the bursaries could help get you to join!

Don't forget transcripts for video and audio. These will help blind users and low-vision users, deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people with ADHD, and people with audio-processing disorders. Transcripts also benefit search engines, people in quiet spaces, and people in a hurry.

Screen reader users can navigate from heading to heading. If HTML headings are used correctly, this allows users to get a basic outline of content and find the information they’re looking for. The highest heading level is <h1> and <h6> is the lowest. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

Our latest blog post is up! In this post, Lilian Joy @xlearn.bsky.social reflects on the DigAcc25 conference held in June, and the University of York's hub event for the conference #DigAcc25: blogs.york.ac.uk/digital-acce...

Reflections on DigAcc25 blogs.york.ac.uk/digital-acce... #DigAcc25

When using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, don't just make text bigger and bolder to make it a heading. That will work for sighted users, but screen reader users will miss that and just hear it as normal paragraph text. Use actual heading styles, like level 1 through 6.

UoY teaching staff - don't forget your reading lists! Using the library's reading lists systems has various benefits, including providing a more accessible experience for your students - but it can help you too! 1/

UoY teaching staff - don't forget your reading lists! Using the library's reading lists systems has various benefits, including providing a more accessible experience for your students - but it can help you too! 1/

reminder: do you really mean neurodiverse, or do you mean neurodivergent? words matter! people are not diverse - groups are. Graphic from educator Sonny Jane Wise aka Lived Experience Educator

Also consider whether you even need a PDF! It's traditionally a print format, so whilst it is ubiquitous, it's inherently not a accessible format. If created from a structured document, proper export can preserve heading structure and alt text, making the exported PDF more usable to more people 1/

For example, "A brand rooted in unconventionalism" uses a word most people never would use and is not a clear way to talk about a university. (Jumping on a bandwagon to make a point about digital accessibility? Us? We would never...)

If you have a hashtag with multiple words, write the hashtag in #PascalCase or #camelCase to help users of screen readers. That helps the screen reader to read out the words out individually, rather than trying to read them in one long word.

For screen readers to recognize headings, heading text can't just be body text or normal text that's been made to look bigger and bolder. It must be formatted as a heading. In Microsoft Word and Google Docs, this can be done in the styles box. In HTML, use the tags h1 through h6.

Was reading applications for roles at work today and one of my main takeaways is that a lot of employers are missing out on incredibly qualified, highly talented, passionate people by not being disability inclusive Genuinely we don't know how we're going to choose AT ALL

Our latest blog post is up! This time we consider the question "How do you make accessibility training accessible?", reflecting on what we do to try to make digital accessibility training as easy to access as possible and the challenges this presents: blogs.york.ac.uk/digital-acce...

I went to two Accessibility events in June, both featured AI heavily. I've consolidated thoughts here. I guess the blog post is about cutting through the hype to find the humanity and ensuring "nothing about us without us" - disabled folk need to be front and center of any solutions given to them.

For screen reader users like Holly Tuke, accessibility is the difference between being able to use a website and clicking away. In this post, Holly shares the most annoying barriers she encounters as a blind person, and how to fix them. business.scope.org.uk/article/5-mo...

We love a bit of digital accessibility in action! You can live caption in both Google Slides and PowerPoint and it's a great way to make in person presentations more accessible.

The first time I experienced a Braille map of a garden was in Seattle. While most gardens focus on sight, this one celebrates six senses! Descriptive Transcript: habengirma.com/2025/07/10/m...

As another heatwave hits the UK, this is a reminder that extreme temperatures can exacerbate many chronic conditions and disabilities, so this is a mini thread to be aware and take care! 1/

UoY teaching staff! This does feel a bit like doing a "back to school" stationery promotion at the start of the summer holidays, but we'd like to offer a quick reminder of a few points about reading lists for next academic year - including how the reading lists team can save you effort and time 1/

The #DigAcc25 recordings are now available! Lots to see, including presentations from both of us: you can watch Alice in session 2, room 1; and watch Lilian (with our lovely colleague Chris, from the EDI office) in session 3, room 1 to see more about our work: xerte.nottingham.ac.uk/play_52900#p...

You don't necessarily want to use the exact same alt text each time a specific image is used. Alt text must consider the context of the image and why it's being included on a site, post, article, etc. In other words, alt text depends on where you're including the image and why.

The difference between closed captions and open captions: Closed captions are on a separate track that can be turned on or off. Open captions are captions that are burned into the video, so that they are always showing. The viewer cannot turn them off. www.w3.org/WAI/media/av...

Eden is doing some great research work on autistic listening experiences and representation in film. They are organising a focus group in York for 22nd July. If you are interested please email them directly, they are doing really interesting work.

Love to see more conferences including quiet spaces and sensory spaces in their provision - and always love a conference post with alt text! Accessible conferencing for all!

We can't help noticing that academic conference season has arrived! We hope everyone attending is having a lovely time but also thought it might be a good opportunity to share a thread on some top tips for an accessible conference experience, whether attending, presenting or organising 1/