 Everyone in an IT Organization Has a Role
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), and this year’s theme is “The Right Talent, Right Now.” Accessible information technology (IT) ensures employment opportunities are available to all qualified candidates, including those with disabilities. Some examples of relevant IT include:
- Reading employment opportunities on the website
- Applying for a position
- Completing your time card
- Reading and responding to email
- Writing and reviewing electronic documents
- Accessing the organization’s intranet and external website
- Using software tools needed to do your job
At Minnesota IT Services (MNIT), all employees are involved in ensuring we have an inclusive workplace. In most cases, we don’t get to see all the people working behind the scenes to develop, implement, and support inclusive hiring practices, and to ensure the computers, software, phones and websites are up to date and operating as expected. But this month, we give you an opportunity to learn what MNIT leaders are doing to embed digital accessibility into business processes, the kinds of considerations made by a Systems Architect, and how Project Managers and Business Analysts involve digital accessibility in their daily work in our blog Everyone in an IT Organization Has a Role.
Tech Tip: SharePoint Accessibility
Here are a few steps you can take to ensure your SharePoint sites, pages, libraries, and content are more accessible.
- Use the “modern” SharePoint offerings when possible – these are the most accessible; avoid “classic”
- Verify all documents posted are accessible – run the accessibility checker before posting
- Test color contrast of heading, text, and link colors
- Magnify content to 200% and check that content is clear, not blurry
- Add alternative text to images
- Use link text that tells the user where they will go (avoid “click here”)
- Create content using digital structures: headings, lists, tables with column headers
- Navigate on your page using just the tab key. Do you get to each link and button in the correct order?
SharePoint can do many things, and new features are developed all the time. By planning some digital accessibility testing into your work flow, you ensure that all site visitors and contributors can use the information.
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