Rethink, Design, & Plan Your School Library's Virtual Presence

• HTML Page Titles must be descriptive (i.e., Your Institution Library: Browse Journals).
• Link text must indicate intent or content.
• Images must have alt-text or off-screen text.
• Audio/Video content must include captioning or transcripts.
• Website must be navigable by keyboard only.
• If you display a carousel, do not set it to auto-play. Offer an option to stop.
• Validate that your website is usable for folks who are colorblind. Recommended Tool: Colour Contrast Analyser (free)
• Become familiar with screen readers (e.g., JAWS, NVDA) and other assistive technologies used by your students.
• Test your library website for accessibility. Recommended Tool: WAVE (free)

One of the first rules of web design is don’t make your website visitor think—jargony words do the opposite, often confusing visitors and making them think too much. Change things like Interlibrary Loan to Borrow materials from another library.

• Make sure your site loads quickly - a slow loading site is a deal-breaker for most children & young adults
• Testing with 5 to 7 users will identify 85% of usability issues
• Web Accessibility Validation Evaluator (WAVE): Free tool that identifies accessibility errors. Tool checks that your website is compliant with the following guidelines: 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).