Brooklyn College Library LibGuides Home: Instructional Guides on Creating Accessible OER: LibGuides

Getting Started

Contact Associate Professor & Librarian Miriam Deutch (miriamd@brooklyn.cuny.edu) or one of the OER Developers.
In the email, please provide the email address to use for login name (typically first name.lastname@brooklyn.cuny.edu).
You will receive a system-generated email with link to LibGuides system for logging in and setting password.

Where should I start?
Creating a guide from scratch
Copy a guide from the LibGuides community
Editing and managing your LibGuides
How to share images in the Image Manager
A central place to upload and store images, which you can then reuse throughout.
LibGuides Training on Demand
Training Videos. Search for training videos on topics you want to learn how to do. You will need to be logged into LibApps to access.
Springshare Lounge
Discussions, forums, and information for users of Springshare products. It is a great space to ask questions, search for best practices, and talk with other LibGuides users.
LibGuides as Library Website Examples
Interested in using LibGuides as your library website? See how other institutions have done this!

Page titles should be brief, clear, informative, and unique.
When adding new pages in LibGuides, the "Page Name" field is equivalent to the "Title" field.

Headings help in organizing a web page.
When creating headings in LibGuides make sure to use the actual heading option and don't just make them visually look different.

Making images and graphics "visible" to all users is one of the first principles of accessibility.
The way you make your image visible to everyone is by adding "alternative text" or "alt-text".
Adding alt-text to your images is an accessibility best practice.
Adding alternative text ("alt text") to an image, will make images and graphics "visible".
For people using screen readers or browsing speech-enabled websites alt-text can be read aloud or rendered as Braille.
Alt-text gives the speech input software users the ability to put focus onto a button or linked image with a single voice command.
Alt-text allows mobile users to turn images off to help with download speeds or limit data-roaming charges.
In LibGuides there are several ways to add alt-text to images.
You can add "default" alt-text to an image by using the "Image Manager" to upload the image.
- Each time you reuse an image its default alt-text will be attached.
- This greatly increases the odds alt-text won't be overlooked (especially for images in your shared library.)
You can also add /change alt-text when you add an image in a Rich Text/HTML.

In the Image Manager window, upload a new image, then click on the thumbnail and/or click on the thumbnail of image already uploaded to add default alt-text. (Make sure to click on the actual image and not link icon.)

In the Edit Image Properties window, enter your alt-text into the Alternative Text field.
Click the Save button.

In the "Image Properties" window type in the alt-text in the "Alternative Text" field.

Check to see if the colors you've picked for your tabs and background are accessible.
Use these color contrast evaluation tools.
WCAG Contrast Checker is a Firefox browser plug-in.
This plug-in checks the compliance of contrast levels of foreground and background color combinations based on the requirements of WCAG 2.1.
Color Contrast Analyzer is a Chrome browser plug-in.
This extension allows you to analyze text color contrast problems on a webpage according to the WCAG 2 text color contrast requirements. It evaluates the page as it appears in the browser, so it is able to handle text over gradients and advanced CSS attributes. You can choose to analyze a portion of a web page, the entire visible contents of a tab, or an entire web page.

Choosing accessible colors for your documents and site is important.
Colors affect the readability of your document and site for all users, not just those with vision impairments.
The only people for whom the color choices don’t matter are those using screen readers.

Don't use color as the only way to communicate information, always make sure meaning is conveyed in multiple ways.
This is true for the main text of your document, links in blocks and images of text.
In the case of links, use another identifier such as bold or underline to indicate a link verses using color alone.
Run your site and documents through color contrast checkers to make sure the contrast ratio is good.
To meet basic guidelines (Level AA) text must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 (or 3:1 for large text).