Digital Content Accessibility for Partners

The National Trails office wants to share digital content like videos, social media posts, research, and images. Sometimes we can’t share your content because it does not meet federal accessibility standards. Not only are we required by law to adhere to these standards, but we also want all people to be able to access and understand the information we share online.

Here are a few ways you can make your digital content accessible. This is not an exhaustive list, so please reach out with questions.

Tips for making your digital content accessible.

Content

Requirements

Notes

Images

Provide alternative (alt) text

Just describe the image. Find out more about writing alt text.

Videos

Must include captions & audio descriptions

Learn more about making videos accessible.

Audio-only Content

Provide a transcript

You can find many free transcription services online.

Live broadcasts

Must have real-time captions & audio descriptions

Real-time captions can be challenging and expensive. Consider alternatives to live broadcasts if possible.

PDF & other documents

Must be accessible

PDFs require a lot of work to make accessible; avoid them if possible.
Learn more about accessibility for Microsoft office and Adobe documents.

Maps

Interactive – accessible underlying structure; Static – subjective description

Learn more about making maps accessible.

Children’s Content

Must be accessible

Depending on how you are making the content, use the info above to make content accessible.

Questions? Please contact us

Last updated: September 10, 2020