Websites

The State of Vermont Web Template is a fully-supported content management system. The State’s ‘Web Look and Feel Standards’ consist of the required components that every official State of Vermont website or app must have. The Standards also offer the following web-specific accessibility general guidelines and best practices.

When developing web content, you must prioritize accessibility throughout the design, development, and maintenance process. It’s much easier to make sites accessible from the beginning rather than fixing something after it’s already been built.

According to Digital.gov, there are four common accessibility issues on government websites: 

• Missing Alt text: Always add alt text to images so that people using screen readers can understand the meaning of an image if they cannot visually see it.
• Lack of structure - When creating content, use document styles to organize content and properly tag headings. Syles and heading structure make navigating through a document or web page easier for people using screen readers. Here's a video tutorial on how to create an accessible heading hierarchy.
• Insufficient color contrast - Follow the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) guidance on color to ensure sufficient contrast between text and background colors.
• Content quality - Assume people will scroll through the content rather than read it. Write short, simple sentences using everyday language. Put the most important information at the top of the page. 

Tips for Websites

• Typography - Use sans-serif fonts for all body text. The preferred typefaces for websites and apps are Open Sans and Lato. Header text needs to be larger than body text and use heading styles. Every state website must use a font size set to 1em and at a ‘normal’ weight for body text.
• Hyperlinks - Links to external websites, PDFs, and Word documents should open in a new browser window. Hyperlink titles should describe the action that will happen when the user clicks on the link, such as ‘Download grant application’ or ‘Read more about the grant program.’
• Video Captioning - Be sure to provide captions in the videos so that users who are deaf or hard of hearing can understand the content without having to rely on the visuals alone.
• Create Webpages Instead of PDFs - Create webpages to display your content instead of linking from your webpage to inaccessible PDFs or Word documents. If you must link to a PDF or Word document, make sure you are linking to an accessible version. Run the accessibility checker on the file before you put it on your site.
• Responsive Design—All state websites need to be responsive, meaning they re-stack and resize all content automatically to work best with the display of the viewing device, such as a cell phone, laptop, or desktop computer. It is acceptable for menus to collapse into a menu button that a user must click to open, but these menu buttons must appear and stick at the top or bottom of a tablet or mobile screen.

Learn why accessibility is essential for some and useful for all.