Accessibility guidance

Onrr.gov document accessibility policy

As previously communicated by ONRR’s Deputy Director, as of September 1, 2020, electronic documents submitted for posting on onrr.gov must be accessible to employees and members of the public with disabilities.

Not only does this policy align with our commitment to inclusion, but it’s also the law. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, requires that all Information and Communication Technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by federal agencies must be fully accessible to employees and members of the public with disabilities.

For any documents requested to be uploaded on onrr.gov, the Open Data, Design and Development (ODDD) team will use automated accessibility testing tools to validate accessibility or identify issues. It is the document owner's responsibility and the law to manually examine and identify issues that cannot be detected by the automated testing tools. If the document you have requested to be uploaded on onrr.gov is not accessible and does not meet the automated 508 compliance standards: 1) it will not be uploaded, and 2) you will be notified and receive an accessibility report. The report will identify the accessibility errors that must be corrected by the document owner before the ODDD team is able to upload the document on onrr.gov. Once the document is corrected, the ODDD team will run a second accessibility report. If the report doesn’t show any errors then we will upload the document on the website.

• The ODDD team has created list of resources and available training to assist with this process.
• Limited exceptions will only be granted by the Deputy Director or their designee. Any requests for exceptions must be submitted with a valid justification and will result in a two (2) day grace period. If you have questions, please feel free to contact the ODDD team at onrrweb@onrr.gov.

Manual accessibility testing of documents checklist

While all documents on onrr.gov are required to pass automated accessibility testing before they are publicly available, manual accessibility testing is also required. Manual testing is the document owner's responsibility.

This checklist is designed to outline best practices that ONRR document owners should follow when manually testing. The goal of this checklist is to ease the document owner's burden of manual testing and ensure that manual testing methodology is uniform across the agency.

This checklist is organized by the WCAG requirement that needs testing. Each WCAG requirement is linked to its explanation webpage and a brief description is included within the checklist. Also included are links to the Section 508 ICT Testing Baseline for Electronic Documents. Take time to read each linked explanation webpage to fully understand the requirements.

For each requirement, key issues to check are listed based on document type. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather a list of commonly found issues within ONRR documents. Be sure to fully check your document for each requirement, not just the common issues listed here.

If you have any questions about manually testing ONRR documents, email onrrweb@onrr.gov for additional help.

Automated testing

For all documents, make sure it passes the document type’s automated testing. It is the content owner's responsibility to make sure it passes before the document is made publicly available on onrr.gov.

Tagging within PDFs

• Within every PDF, go into the tags panel and make sure the document is properly tagged.
• Empty paragraph tags should be deleted.
• Take time to learn about best practices for creating accessible PDFs.

Non-text content WCAG 1.1.1

ICT testing baseline for documents: images.

All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose. This is also called alt-text. This criteria is asking the tester to make sure alt-text is present and descriptive.

All document types

• Make sure non-decorative images have alt-text.
• Make sure images that are decorative are properly marked as such.
• Test hiding background images to make sure relevant content is not lost.

PDF

• Make sure non-text content that is decorative (like horizontal line separators) is properly tagged as decorative.

Power Point

• In the Accessibility tab located at the top navigation ribbon, you can mark shapes, images, etc. as decorative. This functionality is located within the screen reader section of the accessibility tab.

Meaningful sequence WCAG 1.3.2

ICT testing baseline for documents: meaningful sequence.

When the sequence in which content is presented affects its meaning, a correct reading sequence can be determined via screen reader or other accessibility tool. This criteria is asking the tester to check the reading order and sequence of content.

PDF

• Check the reading order. Sometimes the reading order looks ok, but headers and footers can be left out in both reading order and tags pane.
• Depending on how large the document is, it can be better to manually set the reading order as sometimes the automated tagging option is not correct.

Power Point

• Open the reading order pane. Check every slide to make sure the reading order makes sense. Sometimes document owners intentionally have a reading order which might seem out of sequence to us. If you are unsure, follow up with the document owner to make sure the reading order is how they intended.

Sensory characteristics WCAG 1.3.3

ICT testing baseline for documents: sensory characteristics.

Instructions provided for understanding and operating content do not rely solely on sensory characteristics of components such as shape, color, size, visual location, orientation, or sound. This criteria is asking the tester to check for directional language and, if present, make sure it's used correctly.

All document types

• Avoid directional language if possible.
• If directional language is necessary, check for directional language like "below/above", “to the right/left” and make sure the content it's referring to is indeed immediately below/above/left/right.

Use of color WCAG 1.4.1

ICT testing baseline for documents: sensory characteristics - use of color.

Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. This criteria is asking the tester to make sure that color is not the only way information is communicated.

All document types

• Make sure that color is not the only means of conveying the information.
• Example of a failure would be a form where boxes are greyed out, but there is no other indication that those boxes should not be filled out except for the grey color.

Contrast - minimum WCAG 1.4.3

ICT testing baseline for documents: contrast.

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. This criteria is asking the tester to check color contrast and make sure the contrast ratios are acceptable.

All document types

• Use the Color Contrast Analyzer to test all foreground and background colors. Remember that this includes images of text as well.
• Logos (like the ONRR logo) are excluded from this criterion.

Images of text WCAG 1.4.5

ICT testing baseline for documents: images of text.

If the technologies being used can achieve the visual presentation, text is used to convey information rather than images of text. This criteria is asking the tester to make sure that text is not displayed as an image.

All document types

• Make sure that text is not displayed as an image.
• This includes screen shots that include a significant amount of text. If there is no way to remove the screen shot and replace with text, make sure thorough alt text image descriptions are provided.
• Text-heavy figures are not always formatted as an image, but should also be thoroughly reviewed.

PDF

• Make sure that text-heavy figures are properly tagged if not formatted as an image.

Pages titled WCAG 2.4.2

ICT testing baseline for documents: document titles.

Pages have titles that describe topic or purpose. This criteria is asking the tester to verify that documents have a title and that title is descriptive of the document's content.

All document types

• Make sure document has a title that is descriptive of what the document contains.

PDF

• In File > Properties, make sure document is titled in the title line, not the subject line.

Microsoft

• Check via File > Info > Properties for document titles.

Link purpose – in context WCAG 2.4.4

ICT testing baseline for documents: links.

The purpose of each link can be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context. This criteria is asking the tester to make sure all links have clear text descriptions.

All document types

• Make sure all links have clear text descriptions.

Headings and labels WCAG 2.4.6

ICT testing baseline for documents: content structure.

ICT testing baseline for documents: tables.

Headings and labels describe topic or purpose. This criteria is asking the tester to verify that heading and labels are descriptive of the content below them.

All document types

• Review headings and labels to make sure they are descriptive for the content below them.
• Make sure tables are properly formatted with headings.

PDF

• Make sure headings are included in the tags.
• Make table headings are tagged properly.

Excel

• Make sure a heading only spans 1 cell and not spread out over multiple cells.

Language of page WCAG 3.1.1

ICT testing baseline for documents: language.

he default human language of each web page can be programmatically determined. This criteria is asking the tester to make sure the language is defined within a document.

PDF

• Check that English is set as the language by going to File > Properties > Advanced > Reading Options.

Microsoft

• Check that English is set as the language by going to File > Options > Language.