All site maintainers should be ensuring their PDFs are accessible. This is accomplished by submitting a remediation ticket with the Office of Accessible Technology and Services (OATS). If you haven't been doing this, you should start doing so from this point forward.
How-to Videos on This Page
Please note that all the how-to videos on this page contain helpful narrations so be sure to unmute the videos when you watch them.
Support Ticket Link
Use the following link to submit a remediation ticket:
Content Accessibility and Remediation
Find this ticket by searching for "oats" at support.csuchico.edu.
How to Create a Content Accessibility Ticket
How-to Video: Accessibility - Submitting a Ticket with OATS
If You Have Multiple Files to Submit
Create a ZIP archive for remediation requests that include more than 1 file. Submit the ZIP archive in one ticket request.
How to Create a .zip Archive
- Place files into a folder.
- Right click the folder, then select:
- Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows.
- Compress "folder name" on Mac.
How to Download a File from a Ticket to Update/Replace a PDF in Cascade
How to Video: Download a File from a Ticket to Update/Replace a PDF in Cascade
File Naming Rules and Recommendations
Remember to use slugs for your filenames:
- no capitalization
- dashes instead of underscores
- no special characters
- no spaces
Bad Filename: BA Course Sequence.pdf
Good Filename: ba-course-sequence.pdf
File Renaming Tool
Slugify is a great tool for quickly renaming your files.
Keep the Same Filename If You Can
By default, updating/replacing a PDF in Cascade will not change the filename. Changing the filename requires an extra step.
You are better off not changing the filename if you don't have to. Keeping it the same retains the URL and can help prevent broken links from occurring.
Use Generic Filenames and Add Revision Dates Within Your Document
We recommend that you use a generic filenames:
- budget-guidebook.pdf instead of
- budget-guidebook-rvsd-4-18-19.pdf
You can track and communicate versions of the document by including a last revised date within the document itself.
How to Change a Filename within Cascade
How-to Video: Renaming Files in Cascade
Sometimes you need to change the filename. Here are the steps:
- Find your document within Cascade by navigating into _assets/documents or using the search function at the top right.
- Right click the file you wish to change, then select rename.
- Republish your entire site after you're done. Cascade is smart enough to know that you've change the filename so Internal Links will still work. That said, you need to republish the whole site to ensure it works.
Why Remediate Your PDFs to Ensure Accessibility?
It's Our Legal Obligation
The university is required by law to take actions to ensure content is accessible by all audiences, including those with visual impairments. By publishing non-accessible PDFs, your are increasing the risk of a lawsuit being filed against CSU, Chico.
Inclusive Design Benefits Everyone
Included are 3 video links helpful to understanding the why behind inclusive design.