Site Accessibility

The MSU Libraries are committed to providing equal access to library collections, services, and digital and physical spaces for all library users.

The MSU Libraries' Web/User Experience (UX) team, in consult with the MSU Libraries' Accessibility team, is continually evaluating its website and implementing changes to improve in the areas of accessible and universal design. The MSU Libraries also follows MSU's web accessibility guidelines and its accessibility policy.

General Information

In the development of this website, we have worked towards adding a significant number of accessibility features. These features complement the use of assistive technologies and help make the site usable to the broadest possible audience, everyone from those who use assistive technologies to those with a low-end browser or computer.

For accessibility assistance with the content and function of this site or if you encounter any accessibility issues or barriers, please contact lib.dl.accessibility@msu.edu.

Accessible Features in Drupal Content Management System (CMS)

If you rely on a screen reader or other assistive technology, you will be glad to know that we have built this site with Drupal, a content management system, to encourage and support the proper use of semantic markup. For example, you should be able to use headings reliably for page-level navigation.

The Web/User Experience (UX) team has worked to identify and resolve accessibility barriers within the site. There have been many improvements to both the visitor and administrator sides of Drupal, especially:

  • Color contrast and intensity
  • Adding skip navigation to core themes
  • Image handling
  • Form labeling

Guidelines

Changing Text Sizes

This site CSS uses relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified 'text size' option in visual browsers. If you need to change the text size in your web browser, we have the following tutorials:

Links and Images

  • Images used in this site include a descriptive 'ALT' attribute. Those images which are purely decorative or used for layout include a null 'ALT' attribute.

Example:

<img src="/path/to/the/image" alt="Alt text goes here..." />

Tables

  • Screen reader table functions within screen readers may be used on this site. The tables are properly coded to take advantage these functions. Example: Using JAWS in Internet Explorer, use Control - ALT - Right Arrow to properly read a table with table headers.
  • Tables used in this site make use of proper headers.

Visual Design

  • This site uses Cascading Style Sheets to control all of the presentation. Turning off the style sheet will affect the visual presentation and may affect the functionality of the site for some users.
  • This site uses accessible colors and typography, please refer to our Design System pages to learn more.