It Takes a School...

"Content," often used as a catchall buzzword, can be a vague and ever-changing label. Whether website copy, social media posts, paid advertising, or another communications piece, all written and visual materials coming from the Northwestern University School of Professional Studies must follow SPS and University visual brand standards and editorial style. Any employee who creates, alters, or updates content in Cascade or another SPS content management system should familiarize themselves with Northwestern's best practices to ensure consistency. Together, we can work to provide a professional, articulate, and helpful voice for SPS and the rest of the Northwestern community.

 

Content LeadsCascade helpWeb accessibility Content Guidelines

 

Content Leads

All SPS staff members can play a role in maintaining the accuracy of SPS web content. If you notice web content that needs updating or have questions about a specific piece of content, contact the web content lead for the particular area and cc: spswebcontentsupport@northwestern.edu.

AREA CONTENT LEAD
Alumni Relations Jigbie Aguirre
College Prep Emily Cypher
Center for Public Safety Caroline Andrew
Graduate Programs Doug Bakker
Home page, About SPS Brad Farrar
OLLI Lory Richards
PDP Programs Nobi Hayashi
Registration Ashley Cook
SPS Stories Jean Kim
Student Services Sean Kavanaugh
Summer Session Beth Julia
Undergraduate, ProHealth, and Post-bacc Programs Megan Powell

Cascade Guidelines and Help

Tip Sheets

The following tip sheets provide detailed steps for performing basic content edits to the SPS website in Cascade. This is a library that will grow over time. If there is a specific task that you would like to see a tip sheet for, send your request to spswebcontentsupport@northwestern.edu.

Cascade Help

The Northwestern University Cascade Help site has a broad range of instructional materials. 

You can also contact spswebtechsupport@northwestern.edu with Cascade questions or requests.

 


Web Accessibility

Making our website accessible to everyone is a legal requirement, it’s the right thing to do, and it can increase the effectiveness of our site.

Web accessibility means making our site usable for people who might have barriers to accessing it. Typically this means people with blindness or other visual disabilities, but in a general sense, it means making a website that can be used by people accessing it with a device other than the typical visual screens most people use. Often these devices are screen readers, which take the content of a website and reads it aloud to users.

Key accessibility considerations

Alternative Text

Alternative text (commonly referred to as alt text) is a crucial accessibility support online. A text description of an image allows students who are blind or low vision to get the same information as students who are able to see the image. However, writing alt text is more of an art than a science; there isn’t a single, straightforward formula for how to write it. Read more on WebAIM.org and the SPS Distance Learning website.

Core Concepts
  • Never leave the file name (classroom2.jpg, img_101916.png, etc.) as the alt text.
  • Context is key: consider the information surrounding the image and what information the image provides. The alt text might be different based on what the surrounding text says about the image.
  • Decorative images don’t need alt text: if the image is purely to provide visual interest and communicates no information, the alt text field can be left blank. Many stock photos and banner images are decorative.
  • Describe the information, not the image. Don’t write “the red line shows the increase in enrollment,” even if that describes the image. Instead, write “enrollment increased 3.6% over the previous year.”
  • Write out any text on the image and avoid using screenshots of text. Screen reader software cannot detect text in an image, so it must be conveyed to the reader in alt text. If there is a lot of text, it will be easier for everyone if the text is simply written on the page as text, rather than presented as a screen shot image and alt text.
  • Don’t say that it’s an image; the screen reader will identify that. Writing “image of,” “graphic of,” “picture of,” and so on is generally unnecessary.
  • Add descriptive text in the 'Image Alt' box in Cascade.
    • Image Alt

Captions

All student-facing and/or public-facing videos need to be captioned. If a script exists, it can easily be converted into a caption file and uploaded to the video host of choice (YouTube, Vimeo). If there isn’t a script, the video can be sent to a captioning service to have captions created. The video can also have captions auto-generated by a tool like YouTube’s auto captions; however, these captions are typically only 60%-70% accurate, and so must be edited by a person listening to the audio to ensure they are totally correct. The former option is more expensive; the latter takes more staff time.

Accessible PDFs

To make a PDF accessible, you must start with an accessible original document. In Microsoft Office products, this can be accomplished by running the Accessibility Checker (File, Inspect Document, Check Accessibility) before exporting the file as a PDF. It is best to use the Adobe Acrobat Create PDF plugin in Office to export a PDF, but saving a document as a PDF from Office is also acceptable. Once in Acrobat, run a second accessibility check and address any issues encountered there. University guidelines and helpful resources for creating electronic documents are available online. Adobe’s help guides also provide more information on the check, the results, and how to correct errors.

Use the SensusAccess tool to also check if any of your documents are in accessible formats.

Unique & Descriptive Links

When inserting links into a page, it is crucial to make sure the links are unique and descriptive. Try to avoid having multiple links embedded in text like “Read More” , “Click Here” or "Upcoming Course" on a single page. (If phrases like this are used for stylistic purposes or if the link is embedded in an image instead of text, use the aria-label tag to add a screen-reader friendly description to the HTML code.)

Never insert a raw URL (https://sps.northwestern.edu/post-baccalaureate/cpa_accounting/index.php) into a page, as a screen reader user will have to listen to the entire link read out loud.

Copying and pasting text

Do not copy text directly from a Word document and paste it directly to Cascade.

Doing this will include hidden Word tags which can cause accessibility issues.

Instead, it is recommended to copy the Word content and paste it to Notepad first. This will remove the Word tags and then copy the text from Notepad and paste it to Cascade.

Example of the hidden Word tags if you copy directly from Word to Cascade.

<p>&lt;div about="{profile.link}" class="node" typeof="schema:Article"&gt;</p>
<p>&lt;a href="{{profile.link}}" <strong>aria-label="{{profile.imgalt}}"&gt;</strong></p>

 

Words Matter: Guidelines for Common Editorial Usage

Consistency is NOT the hobgoblin of little minds — it's essential for presenting our school in a professional manner that's appropriate for Northwestern.

Common formatting occurrences that need to be treated consistently on the SPS website:

Oxford/Serial Comma
  • Use a comma before and or or in a series (red, white, and blue — not red, white and blue).
Capitalization
  • Do not capitalize quarters, job titles, and course topics. Course titles, however, should be capitalized.
Time of day
  • Use lowercase a.m. and p.m.
  • It is sometimes permissible to remove the periods in a.m. and p.m. in tables and lists if space is tight, but use the periods in running text.
  • Noon, not 12 p.m. or 12 noon.
  • In running text, do not use a dash in place of to in a range of times introduced by from (from 5 to 7 p.m., not from 5–7 p.m.). 
  • In lists, ranges of time can be separated by an en dash (5–7 p.m.)  (Windows: Cntrl + -)
  • Do not use :00 with a time on the website (only for formal usage).
  • Do not use o’clock unless it’s in quoted material (only for formal usage).
Dates
  • Use an en dash to show a range of dates and do not repeat 20 (2012–13, not 2012–2013). However, to, not a dash, should be used when from introduces a range of dates (from 2012 to 2013, not from 2012–13).
  • Use the year with the month only if it’s not the current year.
  • Do not use st, nd, rd, th, even if dates are adjectives (March 1 event, not March 1st event).
Degrees (academic)
  • Do not use periods in PhD, BS, MBA, etc.
Numbers
  • One through nine spelled out; 10 and above in numerals, except that numbers of the same category should be treated alike within the same context.
  • First through ninth spelled out; thereafter, 10th, 11th, etc.
  • Numbers beginning a sentence are always spelled out.
  • For figures greater than 999,999, use million or billion (2.3 million, 4 billion).
  • Use a comma in a figure greater than 1,000, unless it’s a date.
  • For inclusive numbers, the second number should be represented by only its final two digits if its beginning digit(s) are the same as the first number’s (pages 343–47).
  • In text, a dash should not be used as a substitute for to in a range (from 1967 to 1983, not from 1967–83).
School Names
  • The full name of our institution is “Northwestern University.” Use the full name on first mention in any situation where it’s not immediately obvious that you’re referring to a university.
  • Colloquially, we all refer to this institution as simply “Northwestern.” This shorthand is acceptable in all content where it’s apparent that the communication is coming from a university. Using it can lend a more conversational tone to communications.
  • Do not use "NU" in anything but the most informal cases.
  • University (upper case) — always capitalize when referring to Northwestern.
  • On first reference, use "Northwestern University School of Professional Studies" to refer to SPS. "SPS" or the "School of Professional Studies" can be used on following references.

In addition to the suggestions below, visit the A to Z Style Guide on the Northwestern Publications website for answers to other Northwestern-related style questions.

 A TO Z STYLE GUIDE

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