People with disabilities face many barriers when accessing websites. These could range from cultural or even technical obstacles.
Inclusive content helps break down barriers to accessibility on websites, making your website accessible to a wider audience – including individuals with visual, language, or cognitive impairments.
Proper contrast between text and background colors is vitally important for users with vision impairments, and providing captions or transcripts for video and audio is another great way to make content inclusive.
Use plain language
Writing content for diverse audiences requires knowledge of the languages spoken across various communities and which terms are most inclusive for your target audience. Furthermore, being mindful of any cultural or social factors which could impact their interpretation is critical – this could require consulting with community members as well as creating guidelines for your content production process.
Plain language writing aims to deliver clear, direct messages in an easily understood format that appeals to users of all ages and reading levels – it can help those with difficulty in reading as well as engaging your target audience more easily on your website. Plain language isn’t only beneficial for those struggling with reading but is an invaluable way to keep visitors coming back!
Clear language is always recommended when creating content for individuals with disabilities or impairments, but its significance becomes even greater when creating website content that will be read by these readers. They often depend on screen readers and other assistive technologies for navigation of websites; so to ensure optimal use, your text must be straightforward and easily understandable so they can interact effectively with it.
Formatting text so it is more readable can include using larger font sizes and selecting colors with contrasted hues; providing captions or transcripts of audio or video content so users with hearing or vision impairments can access information more readily; and including accessibility standards in content creation such as creating captioned tables of content with all necessary fields filled.
Careful word selection that respects a diverse audience is also paramount. Inclusion and accessibility go beyond simply making websites usable by those with disabilities; rather they encompass including all people in their content while making sure they feel seen, heard, and valued – such as by using person-first language (they/their instead of he/him), avoiding sexist or biased terms, and including more diverse examples in your writing.
Use headings and lists
Utilizing headings and lists is an easy way to create website content accessible for people with visual, language or cognitive disabilities. Furthermore, using this technique ensures a logical progression across your page structure – incorporating these practices in your design and writing will enable your message to reach a broader audience.
When writing web content, use the h1> tag to create an informative page title and subheadings and use h2> tags as sub-headings on each page – this allows screen readers and those skimming pages quickly find relevant information.
Appropriate colors and fonts are key components of accessibility. Selecting high-contrast text and background (e.g. black on white) can enhance readability for those with low vision, while it’s essential that font size allows dyslexic or reading disabled individuals to easily consume what they read.
If your website contains links that lead to documents or other websites, make sure they use unique link texts instead of repeating one word over and over. For instance, instead of saying ‘click here for more info”, use ‘more info on writing for the web resources”.
Lacking accessibility features on your website can have just as detrimental an effect on user experience as broken or slow websites, and many countries have laws and regulations in place requiring organizations to make their digital content accessible for all members of society.
As you begin implementing these tips on your website, take it slowly. Begin with creating new content using these guidelines before revisiting existing pages – such as Donate, Volunteer and Program or Service pages – which are most relevant.
Applying these guidelines as you write and update your website content will enable you to create more accessible, inclusive, and accessible material for all of your visitors, regardless of ability. Better-accessible material ensures that your mission reaches as wide an audience as possible while all people have an opportunity to gain more information about what you do and how they can get involved with what is going on behind the scenes.
Use alternative text for images
Many website users suffer from visual impairment or blindness, making visual content inaccessible to them. To make websites more inclusive for these visitors, it’s essential that images include alt text describing its contents for those unable to see it directly. This way they provide context while still giving access to images.
Alt text is essential in providing people using assistive technologies with information they can use, such as screen readers or speech recognition software. When writing alt text, keep it short and straightforward; however, don’t be shy to break up descriptions into multiple sentences to provide as much detail as possible about an image’s contents.
At the same time, it is also vitally important that alt text does not introduce bias into its narrative. Some users of assistive technologies may find it offensive if an alt text uses words associated with stereotypes or assumptions about certain identities – for instance ‘wheelchair bound’ – so opt for words which are less offensive and understandable by multiple audiences.
As part of providing access to all users, it is crucial that the font size, style and colour make reading easy for users. According to the World Wide Web Consortium’s recommendation of at least 4.5:1, high contrast colors with plain sans serif fonts help ensure your website is accessible for everyone.
Although it is possible to add content without making it inaccessible for those who are blind or visually impaired, it’s advisable to include at least some basic alt text for all non-decorative images on a page. Otherwise screen readers could skip over them altogether and this can become extremely frustrating for users with vision impairments.
Use free online tools such as beehiiv to easily add text to an image, which makes creating accessible images easier while improving user experience for all. Millions of people worldwide depend on assistive technology to access websites, so ensuring your content is inclusive for everyone is critical.
Use a logical structure
Implementing a logical structure into your content will help everyone better comprehend what you’re communicating, especially those with literacy difficulties. Avoid large blocks of text which can be off-putting and difficult for any audience. Start sentences, paragraphs and headings off with key information first as this allows users to quickly decide whether they want to continue reading. When using industry terminology or jargon ensure you explain its meaning by either creating a glossary or including inline explanations of its definitions.
WCAG success criteria cover writing accessible content, which has a direct effect on how visitors experience your website. For instance, providing feedback after interactions such as form submission confirmation or alerting visitors of errors will assist visitors who rely on assistive technology such as screen readers.
Make sure your page information is presented logically and your headings are descriptive for people with cognitive disabilities who use screen readers or browser zoom to navigate websites. Use appropriate font sizes and high-contrast colors, bearing in mind that different screen resolutions and device orientations may cause differing degrees of visual impairment.
As with images, it is also essential that any images on your website contain an alternate text (alt text). Screen readers display this text when an image cannot be shown and it may even increase search engine rankings for your website. In addition, adding captions for videos hosted on your website is highly recommended – they help visitors with sensory impairments while tools like Kapwing can easily add captions for videos on any site.
Pop-ups can be extremely annoying for users with accessibility needs and should therefore be avoided whenever possible. By having a visible exit button, users will always know they can leave your content without clicking through multiple layers or scrolling back up the page. Furthermore, it is key to include images representing different backgrounds, situations, jobs and activities – rather than using only photos of able-bodied Caucasian gender-binary people as it sends signals of exclusion and alienation.