Research Guides: NYU LibGuide Accessibility: Consistent Visual Branding

Overview

Text should be properly formatted and consistent with Library Visual Branding (size, color, font)

Text that’s been copy/pasted sometimes adds extra HTML formatting. Copy/pasted formatting can cause strange behavior for assistive technology. It can also cause pages to deviate from the Libraries’ visual branding.

Best Practice: Use the Rich Text Editor tool to format

Headings
Lists
Italics
Bold
Tables

What to check for

Pages with text that is below size 14pt, a font other than Gotham, or a color other than black, grey, or dark purple.
When using the rich text editor check the source view, if there’s lots of HTML code then you’ll want to remove the formatting.

Tips

Use the “paste as plain text” feature when copy/pasting.
Avoid special colors, and don’t use color to indicate meaning. Visit the NYU Visibility page for more information about contrast.

LibGuide Help Center Resources:

Using the Rich Text Editor
The Rich Text Editor is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that works much like a word processor. When editing a Rich Text/HTML content item, it will allow you to easily add and format text, images, and tables. To make advanced customizations, you can even switch to the Source mode to view the underlying HTML code.
Adding and editing Rich Text / HTML content items
The Rich Text/HTML content item is your catch all for pretty much anything. It allows you to add text, images, tables, and even code. Anything you can do in HTML, you can also do in a rich text box. Rich Text /HTML content items are not included in your assets library (Content > Assets), so they can only be reused by reusing the entire box.
Cut, copy, and paste text in a Rich Text / HTML content item
Tips for how to best cut, copy, and paste within the rich text editor! Following the directions on this page will save you time in remediating inaccessible content!

NYU Font Branding

In February 2024, NYU replaced the Gotham web font with a new custom font: NYU Perstare. All Libraries' digital environments (including the library.nyu.edu site and LibGuides) have been set to use this font. Please do not use any custom fonts nor select a different font from within the LibGuides system. Please let User Experience (UX) know if you have any questions about this: lib-ux-group@nyu.edu.

Additional Resources

WebAIM: Color and Contrast Accessibility
Contrast and color use are vital to accessibility. Users, including users with visual disabilities, must be able to perceive content on the page. There is a great deal of fine print and complexity within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 that can easily confuse web content creators and web accessibility evaluators. This article pulls together the terms and principles needed to understand WCAG 2 requirements for contrast and color.
WebAIM Contrast Checker
Tool to check the contrast of your colors.
Accessible U: Color & Contrast
Ensure a strong color contrast between foreground and background on every document, slide and web page. Always use color plus another visual indicator (ex. color plus boldface type or color plus size to communicate important information).