Accessibility for Digital Documents

Adding Documents to the Website

The best practice is to post content in webpages rather than as downloadable document files.

To ensure accessibility standards are met all documents posted to the website need to go through websupport.

Contact Websupport
PDF Approval

Before you start, ask yourself

  1. Is the content of the file current and accurate? Does it need to be removed when it is no longer current and accurate? Will it become outdated quickly?
    1. If so, it is better as a webpage that can be updated easily.
  2. Does its content need to be searchable on our site?
    1. If so, it is better off as a webpage. Search engines are more likely to produce relevant results for webpages rather than for PDFs.
  3. If this must remain in its document form, do I have access to the original file from which it was generated to correct for accessibility issues?
    1. If it cannot be corrected from the original source, we may not be to make it fully accessible and post it.
Accessibility Checking
Microsoft Office and Adobe provide great resources for checking the accessibility of their respective documents before sending them to websupport.
Additional Accessibility Guides
Microsoft Office Documents
PDFs
Website Text
Images
Video
Hands typing on a laptop
Cloud with a Slash Icon
Easy to Change, Easy to Break
Cloud Storage

We do not permit links to cloud-based documents (OneDrive, Google Drive) or box storage. Although, these documents can be made accessible they can also be easily changed and cannot be constantly monitored by our team.

Siteimprove logo
Icon of a computer monitor
Reviewing documents already on the site
Siteimprove

Siteimprove offers a list of all the internal and external documents linked from your pages.

This gives you a tool to quickly make a quick annual review of all documents. For external links, be sure to check the sources and see if a more current document exists.

Photo of University Marketing and Communications
University Marketing and Communications
Physical Address
1007 Campanile Ave.
Brookings, SD 57007
Mailing Address
Communications Center 105, Box 2230
Brookings, SD 57007
Hours
Mon - Fri: 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Follow Us