UoY Digital Accessibility Unit

Text reads: "Access to information is not a kindness. It is a human right." The last sentence is highlighted in pink for emphasis, with a small scribble underneath

Making your content and information accessible is viewed as a nice thing to do. And it is.

But this World Kindness Day, we wanted to remind everyone that access to information is a human right. We shouldn't need to keep asking for it, it's simply how it should be.

It's so tempting but no... When explaining certain accessibility problems people can be doubtful that anyone did it - we always caveat with "I'm sorry if this sounds obvious but these are all things we've seen before!"

Don't forget to add alt text on Instagram and Facebook, too. When you forget, the auto-generated alt text is not as helpful, complete, or accurate as human-written alt text. A.I. can't know the purpose of a photo. Always add your own alt text on Instagram and Facebook.

How People with Disabilities Use the Web Introduces how people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments, use the Web.

People who want to make the web accessible need to understand the many different ways that people with disabilities use the web. This W3C resource offers a good introduction to how disabled people navigate the web, and barriers they commonly encounter.

www.w3.org/WAI/people-u...

When considering rainbow text, don't forget to consider readability and legibility. Text filled with rainbows can be difficult to read. Same with complex rainbow backgrounds. Putting each word or letter in a different color of the rainbow could force readers to work harder.

Avoid emoji icons in alt text. Emoji icons are a visual element, so it's counterintuitive to add them to non-visual content. You'll likely confuse people with messages that don't make sense. In alt text, use plain text, free of symbols, icons, or any weird special characters.

Want to include everyone in your high quality awesome and hilarious Bluesky content that has images? Want to stay faithful and not forget?

Settings > Accessibility > Require alt text before posting

Then, when you add an image, you'll see the warning and the post button will be greyed out...

Designing services for people who need help with numbers Low numeracy affects half of adults in the UK. Many live with the limitations of not understanding numbers and the impact that has on everyday life.

Many live with the limitations of not understanding numbers and the impact that has on everyday life. Laura Parker's Accessible Numbers project offers guidance on how to design services and write content for people who need help with numbers.

accessiblenumbers.com

Get your nominations in for our Community Champions 2026! I know there's loads of you out there doing great work in your respective professional communities. Calling all librarians, learning tech folk, teaching and learning and IT crew.

The BBC's Accessibility Guide has several resources, including step-by-step instructions to using assistive technologies. The resource includes insight into several assistive technologies, including VoiceOver, JAWS, NVDA, TalkBack, ClaroRead, and Dragon.

bbc.github.io/accessibilit...

Customizable Text Short video about customizable text for web accessibility - what is it, who depends on it, and what needs to happen to make it work.

Some people need to change the way text is displayed in order to read it. This includes changing size, spacing, font, color, and other properties. When people customize text, the text should re-flow so they don’t have to scroll horizontally to read.

www.w3.org/WAI/perspect...

Welcome to the Morehell Use these top tips* to search YorSearch, Google Scholar, and academic databases: Trick OR Treat will find articles that mention either the word trick, or the word treat, or both. Use ‘Or’ to expand your search. Trick AND Treat will only find articles that have both words in. Use ‘And’ to focus your search. “Trick or treat” in quotation marks will only find articles with the specific phrase ‘trick or treat’ in. Use phrase searching for far fewer results, but far greater relevancy. Trick NOT treat will only find articles that contain the word ‘trick’, but not the word ‘treat’ – great when e.g. you’re doing research on magic and don’t want any results about Halloween… *Librarians call this BOOOOOOlean logic

We've put this up on our big vertical screen again this year... #UoYTips

Reflecting on the DARCI Conference – Enhancing Audio Description On beautiful, creative and thought-provoking access and representation: reflecting on the DARCI Conference.

Thank you so much for sharing. I would also suggest thinking about accessibility more generally, I wrote a blog post that also reflects on other forms of accessibility and has a video that explains some of those decisions as well enhancingaudiodescription.com/darci-confer...

Keeping to time is an accessibility issue! People need breaks between sessions in conferences for all sorts of accessibility reasons - whether for cognitive load, to take medication, needing bathroom breaks, check blood sugar or anything else! Making an effort to keep to time is inclusive.

More conferences are choosing to provide quiet and/or sensory spaces to help make events more inclusive - this blog post offers some ideas if you're planning an event and are interested in including such a space:

ICYMI: The 2026 #DisabledInSTEM Mentorship applications are now open!

I look forward to seeing your applications soon! 💜

A glass award engraved with NLISN details

Huge thankyou to CILIP Disability Network for awarding NLISN this Accessibility Award, which has now safely arrived in the post! We won as an organisation so although Jo and Andy are named, this award is for all of us. The committee, the network and all our allies. #cilip #libraries #accessibility

a person with a pumpkin on their head dancing in a cemetery Alt: Pumpkin dance meme - a man in skin tight black clothes and wearing a jack o lantern carved pumpkin over his face dances cheesily but jauntily against a graveyard backdrop

So have a Happy Halloween - and always check for charcoal! 4/4

If you take oral medication, always check any black coloured foods as to whether they contain charcoal. It can significantly reduce your uptake of a wide range of medications, including painkillers, antidepressants and the pill. 3/

Activated charcoal can be used to treat poisoning - charcoal is very effective at binding with other chemical agents. Unfortunately this is indiscriminate, so the action that can remove poison from your digestive tract can also absorb necessary medication from any tablets you have taken 2/

A cooling tray of Halloween cookies, shaped like tiny stars and moons and made from black coloured dough.

So as Halloween draws near, time for a seasonal PSA: if you taken any kind of oral medication, beware novelty black food for Halloween. The colouring, especially in any baked goods, is commonly achieved using powdered charcoal. This can absorb medication, effectively reducing the dosage. 1/

Promotional graphic for the DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship Program. The background is a dark blue gradient with flowing wave-like patterns in blue and gold. At the top, white text reads: “DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship Applications Now Open.” Below, a yellow box with black text says: “Seeking Disabled Mentees and Dedicated Mentors to Champion Inclusion in STEM.” At the bottom, white text states: “Applications due December 5th.” In the lower right corner, there is the DisabledInSTEM logo.

It's that time of year again... time for #DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship applications! I'm so excited to be running this program for the sixth year and seeing the growth over the years!

Mentee form: forms.gle/um5DvYnBi3tn...
Mentor form: forms.gle/BvaxnQm8uhUR...

Applications due December 5th!

Hello! We're going to be part of an ADHD awareness month stand in @uoylibrary.bsky.social library foyer today! The stand runs 12.30-14.30 - do drop by with any questions, to find out more about available university support or just to have a chat!

Whether digital or physical, universal design is the best approach. Building accessibility into your building, designs, product or service from the start is so much easier than trying to retrofit.

Vestibular disorders affect people's balance as well as their visual perception of their world around them. Don't make animations, sliders, videos, or rapid movement start automatically, as autoplaying elements could trigger a bad reaction in people who have vestibular disorders.

The internet’s down and suddenly it’s chaos. Welcome to a day in the life of blind and partially sighted people trying to access websites that aren't accessible, it’s like the internet’s down all the time.

A reminder that the ADHD Awareness library stand is TOMORROW (Tues 21st October) in the library foyer, 12:30-14:30. If you're on campus west, do drop by to find out more and have a chat! And if coming to speak to us wasn't enticement enough, there may also be cake...

Acq/ER folks, have you heard anything about how publishers are going to make journal articles and ebooks compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA level? #CripLib #libraries

🫡

Oh hiii #OAWeek - we are still looking for a couple more presentations for this Green OA event 😁 You may know someone doing fantastic work related to Green OA which needs to be shared (open access is sharing and all) 💚