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Guides best practices: Test for accessibility issues

After using this guide, Stanford Libraries staff will be able to build, assess, and maintain research guides that address specific information needs.

Check for device, browser, and application issues

Check out these Designing for Accessibility Posters for some quick and simple tips to make  sure that your guides are accessible and usable for users with low vision, low hearing, dyslexia, motor disabilities, users on the autistic spectrum and users of screen readers.

These posters were designed and made freely available by the accessibility group at Home Office Digital.

deviceUse different devices.
LibGuides are responsive to screen size, but some content may still appear unreadable on smaller screens. View your guide on different devices or change the size of your browser window to see what your guide looks like on computers, tablets, and smart phones.

 

browserUse different browsers. 
Springshare supports different browsers, but guides may still vary in how they appear in different browsers. Open your guides in Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari, to see if content displays the same.

 

headphonesUse screen readers.
Users with visual impairments rely on screen readers to use our guides. Please test your guide with a screen reader application to find issues your guide may present. Free apps include VoiceOver (for MAC) and NVDA (for PC).

 

Check guide statistics

LibGuides collects guide statistics, such as: guide views, page views, and asset clicks. We invite you to view or export guide statistics at any time. They may help you identify popular guides, pages, and/or assets to prioritize or identify low-use guides, pages, and/or assets to rethink, merge, or retire. For the most part, they will help you answer basic questions, like:

  • How often are guides used?
  • Which guides are used more frequently?
  • How often are guides used before and after they are promoted?

Seek user feedback

The statistics are interesting. But in order to answer more complex questions, you'll need user feedback. For instance, you'll need user feedback to answer:

  • Do users find your guide useful?

  • Do users find your guide easy-to-use?

  • Are users achieving the learning objectives?

One way to help answer these questions is to include a survey or quiz in your guide. A quiz would also help make your guide more interactive. LibGuides offers the ability to add poll assets which you can use for multiple choice type questions. Alternatively, you can use a free tool, like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms, and embed a survey into your guide as a widget asset.