Introduction

Publishing Content for the Web

The web relies on content being organised in a semantic structure that a machine can read. You’ll know this language as HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language). Maintaining the standards of this markup helps machines—search engines, social media, apps and bots, and other websites—access and distribute content reliably. It also helps the different parts of a webpage, and its internal relations and functions, be interpreted and rendered properly—in a way that humans can usefully experience.

When we develop and organise information on the web, we need to keep this markup in mind. It also means that the information produced for this medium will be vastly different than if it were intended for another. The guidelines and documentation in this section, identify some of the simple (and best practice) ways you can make your communications shine in this medium. They will help you use the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), take advantage of integrated content drawn from other University systems, and draw on available analytics. Going forward, when new features are introduced, they will be introduced with relevant documentation.

Accessibility

Accessibility is a practice and guiding principle for developing a web that includes everyone, but especially people with disability. It ensures that the barriers to online participation are either removed entirely, or minimised. It doesn’t only benefit people with disabilities. It helps anyone facing obstacles, whether situational—like having broken glasses, or a mouse with a dead battery—or more systemic obstacles—like having limited bandwidth and speed. Accessibility is important, both as a business advantage and a legal obligation, but it’s also something we pursue in recognition of the diversity and dignity of the people we want to communicate with online.

The Four Principles of Accessibility

The Four Principles of Accessibility help define what is necessary for someone with a disability to access and use the web. While they typically reference user-interface components, such that we might use within Blocks, the principles can apply to *any *information on the web, including how we construct our page, or write text. The four principles of accessibility require that content is:

1. Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presented to users in ways they can perceive.
2. Operable: User Interface components and navigation must be operable for users in ways they can perform.
3. Understandable: Information and the operation of the User Interface must be understandable.
4. Robust: Content must be robust, such that it can be reliably and consistently interpreted by a wide variety of technologies.

If any of these are not true for our sites, people with disabilities will not be able to use our sites. You can review the Accessibility Principles and encounter the people who rely on its implementation to better understand—and champion—accessibility.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

A working group of the World Wide Consortium provides guidelines to help implement the Four Principles of Accessibility, and make the web an accessible space—specifically for people with disability. These guidelines are called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and they can be observed in three standards of compliance. Some can be met simply by keeping a few things in mind when creating content, most are automatic and already integrated within WordPress or can be programmed by developers, and some require considerable technical resourcing. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are not necessary reading for Content Managers, but familiarity is essential for developers.

We aspire for compliance to the very achievable AA standard (of the most recent, stable version available: Version 2.1, at the time of writing) and still have considerable work left to do.