Web accessibility is the inclusive practice of removing barriers which prevent access to information and functionalities on websites. An online document or tool is accessible when it can be easily understood and used by everyone,regardless of the browser or adaptive equipment he or she is using.

For the most part accessbility is built into the overall design of the website, but there are some things you can keep in mind when adding content to make sure it is accessible.  You should also keep these accessibility tips in mind when creating documents for the website like Word and PDF files.

Check that text has a strong contrast against the page background

Use more than color to denote differences, emphasis, and content meaning.

Use descriptive heading styles to designate content organization.

Use bulleted or numbered list styles to denote list structure

Provide alternative text for images, graphs, and charts.  Make sure the name of any image file you upload to the site is descriptive (for example "cow_in_field.jpg" vs "0392939303.jpg").  The file name will be used to create the image title which will be used to create the default alternative text (for example "a cow in field").

Supply multiple avenues for multimedia content (e.g., audio with a transcript or video with captioning).

Use descriptive titles, headers, and link text to provide added context.

Do not rely solely on references to shape, size, or position to describe content.

Use the table field to create tables with divs instead of table formatting.

If you have to add a traditional table format and use simple tables with column and row headers.

See MSU Web Accessibility http://webaccess.msu.edu/ for more information on web accessibility.