Common Mistakes

Many of the most common issues with web accessibility are already addressed and remedied by Xavier's standard web templates and page editor. However, there are some common issues that still arise when editing pages.

Copy in Images

Sometimes it seems like a simple formatting or captioning solution to put copy in an image. If you are going to do so then you need to make sure you also put that copy, and maybe a description of the image, in the 'alt' tag for that image. In the Cascade page editor you can add 'alt' text in the Image Description field in the image editor.

Alt Text for Images

All images need to have an alt="" attribute associated with their img tag. The Cascade page editor requires a checkbox to adds attribute, but in some cases additional information is needed. Any image that serves a function other than decoration needs to have the alt attribute filled in. The most common examples of this are images that contain information and images used as links. In these cases the alt tag should be completed with a description of the image content. In the Cascade page editor you can add alt text in the Image Description field in the image editor.

Tables

Using Tables for Page Layout

In the early days or creating and editing web pages tables were commonly used to position elements on the page. Now, tables should only be used for displaying data that has a logical relationship.

Using Tables for Non-Tabular Data

Too frequently the MarTech team comes across tables that are used fot non-tabular data (not necessarily layout, but not far off). Tables should be used to show data samples, or data that has reuseable header rows across all points. An example would be a table of courses:

Course Name	Days Met	Instructor	Credit Hours
Sample Course	M/W/F - 8am	Dr. Instructor	3