Assistive technology users use link lists to navigate content. This means they cannot rely on context to tell what a link does. Each link needs to be uniquely descriptive of what it does. The best place to uniquely identify a link is in the link text. Good examples are: "View Assignment 34," "Visit Entomological Society of America," etc.

Users with some disabilities will be unable to see images and/or comprehend what they are meant to convey.  Alternative Text can help give context and meaning to an image.

Sakai uses a single consistent Rich-Text Editor across all areas where text can be added that is more than a few lines. This editor is based on the most recent stable version of the CKEditor.

When creating content using the Rich-Text Editor, it is important that the author follow the simple guidelines below to ensure that the content can be read and understood by all. Creating well-structured and accessible content is a best practice which ensures that content is compatible with assistive devices, such as screen readers, and robust enough to be copied and pasted to other contexts or presented in unanticipated contexts.  Making content accessible is also a legal requirement.

The Rich-Text Editor's Accessibility Checker feature can help you check your content for accessibility issues and edit it to fix them.

The technical measure of accessibility for a web-based resource is the WCAG 2.0 standard from the W3C. The requirements of the WCAG 2.0 are summarized in the four-letter acronym POUR:

• Perceivable - Information must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
• Operable - User interface components, navigation and structure must be operable.
• Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable, and structural elements should be used in a meaningful way.
• Robust - Content must be robust enough so that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of technologies, including assistive technologies.

These relatively simple considerations make a big difference if applied when content is created. The W3C provides more information in their Introduction to Understanding WCAG 2.0.

Please note that the help documentation provided for Sakai is written for "out-of-the-box" (OOTB) Sakai. As such, it is designed to support the core tools available for this version.

The screen images incorporated into the documentation are all taken using the generic, OOTB Sakai theme or "skin".

Depending on local customizations, your individual instance of Sakai may have some differences in available tools, tool names, user roles, skins, or default permissions.

Also note that while all users have the ability to search and view all available help, your user account must have the necessary permissions in order to perform administrative or site management tasks. Help articles may describe features or settings that are not available to you, depending on your role within a site. See What are permissions and roles? for more information.