Rice University is committed to making web content accessible to all members of the Rice community, including those with disabilities. This includes electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) that are published in the Rice Research Repository (R-3), managed by Fondren Library. As the author of a thesis or dissertation, you share the responsibility for ensuring that your work meets accessibility standards, making it available to all interested researchers.
In addition to the resources below, please see this guide for additional information about ETD accessibility.
When creating digital documents, there are a few basic issues to keep in mind to ensure they are accessible. These issues are the same regardless of document format (e.g., HTML, Word, PDF).
The steps below can help ensure that your digital document is accessible. It is designed to be used alongside the Rice Digital Accessibility office's resources and trainings, which provide specific guidance on different document types.
If you encounter any issues, or have any questions, please reach out to Fondren library using this webform or ask@rice.libanswers.com.
This guide is adapted from the University of Washington's Accessible Technology: Documents.
Most word processing and content creation software includes accessibility features. Use them when possible.
Heading styles make a big difference in helping your document meet accessibility standards. Headings organize a document so people can find the content they need or understand its structure. Do not skip heading levels.
Alt text for images and figutes helps screen readers understand the objects in a document.
Adding document properties, like Title, Author, and Language, aids in accessibility. Many screen reader applications support multiple languages, but they are unable to automatically determine what language a document is written in or if the language changes within that document.
Use any built-in tools to check accessibility, if you haven't yet done so during the writing process. Follow any prompts to resolve issues, re-running the checker as needed.
Built-in accessibility checkers are helpful, but they are not complete. They detect rule-based issues, but they cannot evaluate content for logical reading order or context. While accessibility checkers are a critical element of this process, the following items are important to manually review:
Once you have finalized your document in Word, or similar, be sure to save the file as a PDF (retaining a copy of the original source file).
Keep accessibility settings when you convert the document. When converting to PDF, use settings that retain tags and accessibility formatting. Avoid "Print to PDF" settings as they will remove your tags and accessibility formatting.
If you encounter any issues, or have any questions, please reach out to Fondren library using this webform or ask@rice.libanswers.com.
Rice's Digital Accessibility office maintains an extensive offering of accessibility resources, live and self-paced trainings, and events.
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