Slide accessibility compliance

[jayhesselberth]

Here are suggestions from Claude on how to improve the accessbility of our slide content.

Based on the slide content you've shared, I can provide an assessment of your slides' compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. Here's my evaluation:

Current Accessibility Strengths

1. Clear headings and structure: Your slides use proper heading levels which is good for navigation.
2. Code examples with labels: Your code chunks include labels which helps with navigation.
3. Alternative methods for information: You provide both visual graphs and textual explanation.
4. Simple, straightforward language: Your content uses clear, concise language.

Areas for Improvement

1. Color Contrast (WCAG 1.4.3)

• The slides appear to use colored text and backgrounds, but without seeing the actual colors, I can't confirm if they meet the minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
• Recommendation: Ensure all text has sufficient contrast with its background.

2. Alternative Text for Images (WCAG 1.1.1)

• The plots, graphs, and figures created with ggplot appear to lack alt text.
• Recommendation: Add meaningful alt text to all images/plots using the fig.alt chunk option:

  #| fig.alt: "Description of what the figure shows and its significance"

3. Non-descriptive Link Text (WCAG 2.4.4)

• Some links use generic text like "here" or just URLs.
• Recommendation: Use descriptive link text that explains where the link goes.

4. Table Structure and Headers (WCAG 1.3.1)

• When displaying tables (like from gt()), ensure they have proper headers.
• Recommendation: Add appropriate headers to all tables.

5. Text Resize and Reflow (WCAG 1.4.4, 1.4.10)

• Hard to assess without seeing the actual presentation, but ensure content is visible when zoomed to 200%.
• Recommendation: Test slides at different zoom levels.

6. Text Spacing (WCAG 1.4.12)

• Ensure text can be read properly if a user needs to adjust line height, spacing, etc.
• Recommendation: Avoid fixed layout that might break with text spacing adjustments.

7. Keyboard Accessibility (WCAG 2.1.1)

• All interactive elements should be keyboard accessible.
• Recommendation: Ensure any interactive elements can be accessed via keyboard.

8. Emoji Accessibility (WCAG 1.1.1)

• Emoji (like in slide-24.qmd) should have text alternatives.
• Recommendation: Provide text equivalents for emoji or ensure screen readers can interpret them correctly.

Specific Examples for Improvement

1. In the statistical tables slide, ensure the image ("/img/stats_table.png") has appropriate alt text.

2. The equation representations should be accessible to screen readers - check if MathML is being used.

3. For visualizations created with ggplot2, add clear descriptions with fig.alt.

4. For the Howard Zinn quote, ensure it's marked up as a blockquote for proper semantic structure.

These improvements would significantly enhance the accessibility of your slides and bring them closer to WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance.

[jayhesselberth]

@nmukherjee I added a stub fig.alt to each chunk option that generates a plot. Can you go through and update in your lectures / exercises?