teaching-phd-skills

Why this exists

This one has a date. The DOJ’s 2024 Title II rule makes WCAG 2.1 Level AA the standard for web content a covered entity makes available, and a public university is a covered entity. For entities serving 50,000 or more people the compliance date is 26 April 2027. A public repo with a hosted-notebook badge is web content. Course material is web content.

The practical argument is simpler than the legal one: alt text is a one-sentence cost at authoring time and a project in retrospect. Writing it as you make the figure is free. Retrofitting it across four years of notebooks is a semester.

No external curriculum teaches this for notebooks. That is why it is here.

External material

WebAIM’s alternative text guide — the best practical treatment of what alt text should actually say. The WCAG 2.1 quick reference filtered to Level AA, for the criteria themselves. Both are written for web pages. Neither covers notebooks, so the mapping below is the mechanic.

Governing part

Part 3 notes the obligation. The standard does not restate the WCAG criteria and neither does this lesson; go to the source for those.

The mechanic

Take one public notebook or figure set — the handbook repo itself is a legitimate target if you do not yet have a public notebook.

• Alt text describes what the figure shows, not what it is. “Bar chart of results” is useless. “Lithium demand under three recycling scenarios, diverging after 2032, with the high-recycling case 40% below baseline by 2040” is alt text. Write the takeaway.
• Heading order with no skipped levels. # then ## then ###. A screen reader user navigates by heading; a skipped level reads as a missing section.
• No colour-only encoding — this is the same requirement as Figure and table design, arriving from a different direction. Do both at once.
• Tables get real header rows. A markdown table with a header separator row is fine; an image of a table is not.
• Body text contrast at least 4.5:1. Check it rather than eyeballing it.

Deliverable

Repo URL.

Competency check

• Every figure has alt text naming the trend or takeaway, not the chart type
• No heading level is skipped anywhere in the notebook
• Greyscale check passed
• Tables have header rows and are not images
• Body text contrast measured at 4.5:1 or better, with the measurement stated

Turning it in

This replaces your writing entry for the week you do it. Submit it to that week’s WW assignment in Canvas — the same one you would have submitted anyway. It is not an extra piece of work on top of the log.

• In the text box: how long the alt text actually took, and your estimate of what retrofitting your whole repo would cost.
• You hand in: A repo URL — alt text naming the trend on every figure, no skipped heading levels, nothing encoded by colour alone, and a measured contrast ratio

You do not submit anything to the milestone yet. When all five skills in M4 are done, submit the M4 — The Manuscript assignment, which is just an index saying which week each one went in.

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