Yahoo’s Accessibility Expectations for Vendors and Partners

Introduction

This document is owned and maintained by the Yahoo Accessibility Team and is for authorized external vendors and clients only and should not be shared publicly beyond each client. This information is presented to assist with implementation of accessibility best practices and provides useful resources regarding our expectations and the requirements of Section 6.7 of the Vendor Master Terms and Conditions. However, nothing in this document is intended to or shall amend, revise or alter the obligations in the Vendor Master Terms and Conditions.

Yahoo is committed to delivering accessible and inclusive products for all of our users and customers, including those with disabilities, who must be able to perceive, operate, interact with, and understand content and functionality. Yahoo digital experiences, which may have components built by vendors or other third parties, should be robust enough to be accessed across assistive technology platforms. If you have any questions about how to meet these expectations, please contact your Yahoo point of contact, after reviewing the resources below. Many reliable accessibility tools and consultants can assist you in meeting these expectations.

Yahoo follows the recommendations provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) including the following basic design and development requirements for products, platforms and services.

[Note: The “screen reader” software referred to below includes VoiceOver which is built into iOS and Mac OS; TalkBack on Android; and Narrator which is included with Windows; NVDA and JAWS are Windows-based screen readers which are separately available for download and purchase.]

Accessibility Expectations

  1. All pages and tabs should follow a logical reading order. Content is separated into segments by headings and page titles.
  2. Page elements are navigable by keyboard alone and can be accessed without using a mouse.
  3. Links should be descriptive to ensure a user knows where the hyperlink will take them.  (For example, instead of “read more,” use “read more about investing” as the hyperlink text).
  4. All videos have captions and are displayed in a video player where all playback controls are usable by assistive technology (i.e., the tools that people with disabilities use to navigate digital devices).
  5. Images have descriptive alternative text (“alt-text”) to convey what is being shown visually. Alt-text is embedded in the underlying code (metadata) of images on web pages and apps and enables a screen reader user to hear information about an image.
  6. Content that includes text within a picture or video (e.g., text as a design element, “burned” into the image) should have a text-only version available so the information presented can be conveyed to screen reader users.
  7. Buttons must be labeled so that their purpose is clear to a screen reader user who is navigating the page.
  8. The page has sufficient color contrast (see link for tool to test below) between foreground and background of all user interface elements such as text, buttons, icons, and form fields. Visual characteristics are not used alone to communicate meaning (e.g., using red, yellow and green colors to denote a project’s status).
  9. There should always be a way to “escape” or “close out” a pop-up window and any changes on-screen should be announced to the screen reader software.
  10. Limit any moving, flashing, or blinking content to avoid triggering seizures in photosensitive people.
  11. Text should be able to be magnified up to 200% without loss of readability or usability.

Accessibility Testing Tools

There are a number of tools available, some free-of-charge, that can be used to check the baseline accessibility of a website or app. While these tools mostly only uncover the most easily identifiable accessibility issues, they may provide a quick assessment of compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the globally accepted accessibility standard.

The following evaluation tools are either free or offer a free trial and are provided for informational purposes only.

Additional Resources

The following links identify available resources and provide more detailed explanations of best practices and are provided for informational purposes:

This document was last updated on April 30, 2021.