Research Guides: Best Practices

Your readers will appreciate if you stick to these suggested guidelines to improve the accessibility of your guide:

• Text formatting
• Copy and Paste with caution
• Display Link Descriptions
• Images need ALT tags

• Don't mix different font types.
• Avoid changing the font size unless you have good reason.
• If you need headers within a text box, use Heading 3 and Heading 4 in the rich text editor.
• Don't underline text that is not a hyperlink, as it causes confusion.
• Use bold or italics sparingly. 
• Don't use ALL CAPS.

Take caution when copying & pasting content from any source. Many times hidden style code will also be copied along.

There are a few ways to avoid hidden style code from being placed into your guide. The rich text editor has a few useful tools to use. 

•  This button will show a popup box that will strip out all text formatting and leave behind plain text. Best for simple text.
•  Don't use this button as it can cause weird errors.
•  This button will remove all formatting from selected text inside the rich text editor. This will generally solve strange formatting issues you may find from copied text. 

• Make sure link and database assets display their description below the link. Don't hide the description behind a hover-over. 
• Break up long list of items into groups so that it can be skipped by screen readers.
• Make sure linked text makes sense out of context. Ambiguous phrasing obscures what the link is about.
  • Bad: Click here for directions.
  • Good: Directions to GW are available online.

• All Images need to have Alternate text (ALT tags) included. You can check this by double-clicking the image when in the rich text edit mode.
• If the image links to a resource make sure the image ALT tag also describes the destination. 
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