Style Guide

Citations

Include 1–3 citations supporting our recommendations from our preferred sources:

• Folwell Design System
• W3C Accessibility Standards
• WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)

Duplicating Content

Don’t repeat information like legal implications; link to Legal Obligations page instead.

Don’t include how-to instructions; link to our preferred sources instead (see how-to instructions below).

Headings

Make headings actionable and positive, especially on the Core Skills and similar pages: Not “Techniques for Text Emphasis” or “Never Use Color Alone to Show Emphasis,” but something like, “Use Color with Another Cue for Text Emphasis.”

Use headline style capitalization for all heading levels. The Accessible U Committee consulted the following sources, and decided that choosing a style and being consistent is the most important, so chose headline style capitalization.

• WAI's style guide recommends headline style for most headings. However, they  recommend sentence case for "Tips" headings.
• The Folwell Design System and University Relations style guide do not address this topic. University Relations staff use Associated Press sentence style headings for news stories, and headline style capitalization elsewhere except for some content like tips.
• Knowledge editors in the Office of Information Technology use headline style in their how-to articles.

How-to Instructions

Include links to 1–3 step-by-step instructions for a particular technology: 

• Folwell Design System
• Information Technology
• WebAIM 

Language Relating to Disabilities

The Accessible U website uses a mix of person-first or people-first (“people with disabilities”) and identity-first language (“disabled people”).

Currently there is no consensus for using person-first or identity-first language among various disability cultures. There may be a broad consensus within a group about which version of language to use, but individuals may have a preference for the alternative. Our overall aim for this website is to be as inclusive as possible.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style guide disability page provides this guiding principle, by which we abide:

“The overall principle for using disability language is to maintain the integrity (worth and dignity) of all individuals as human beings.”

We consult the Employer Assistance and Resources Network on Disability Inclusion Person First and Identity First Language page, and also use these identity-first phrases:  

• "autistic people"
• "blind people"
• "Deaf" (hearing-impaired is not acceptable to most Deaf people or hard-of-hearing people).

If you want to provide feedback on the use of language on this site, please send a message to [email protected].

Media

• Caption images and videos and/or provide a direct link to videos
• Link to YouTube videos because having multiple embedded videos in accordions caused all the videos to play at once for users on some browsers
• Link to Kaltura videos because there isn’t an easyway to embed them

Summary Content

Include a Summary on each page; they are configured to appear in search results.

Text

• “Hyperlink” vs. “link”: “hyperlinks are used to navigate between web pages within same or different websites, whereas links are just web addresses,” but Wikipedia says, “a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a reference to data that the reader can follow by clicking or tapping,” so we will simply use “link,” as the Folwell Design System site does

• Spell out acronyms the first time they are used on a page or in a tabbed section, then use the acronym 
• Google Doc instead of Google doc
• Use shift + option on a Mac for m dashes (—) instead of a hyphen (-)
• Use bulleted lists for more than two items and paragraphs for less than two
• On core skills and similar pages, include a Do and Don’t heading level 4 under each specific accordion title styled as a heading 3. For the Don’t items, make sure each reads as a negative, such as “Don't use images just to fill a page.”