5 ideas to make your content accessible to everyone

Making your content accessible to everyone in your audience is a smart strategy, even if your organization isn’t required by law.

Accessible content allows anyone to consume your creations. It also tells everyone that your brand recognizes the value of inclusive content.

What exactly is accessible content?

According to the W3C Working Group (and illustrated below by Straive), web content accessibility encompasses four principles. Is:

• Perceivable: Users can perceive all the information presented even if one of their senses is not working.
• Operable: Users can operate the interface and navigation components.
• Understandable: Users can understand the information.
• Robust: Users can access content through assistive technologies.

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Web accessibility also addresses “situational disabilities” – temporary factors that affect how a person accesses or perceives a website or application. For example, a poor Wi-Fi connection could prevent access on a mobile device, or bright natural light hinders a user who is outdoors. Or an ear infection could prevent a consumer from hearing properly.

Therefore, the most accessible content remains usable, perceivable, and understandable no matter how, when, or where a person accesses the content.

What content should be accessible?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a widely accepted global authority, define web content as “the information on a web page or web application, including natural information such as text, images, and sounds, and the code or markup that defines the structure, presentation, etc. .”

In other words, every piece of digitally published content must be accessible, including:

• text-based content
• PDF
• e-books
• white papers
• Video – live and recorded
• Audio – live and recorded
• Images and graphics

How can inaccessible content be fixed? Here are five opportunities:

1. Use descriptive text

The lack of descriptive text for essential components of a website is a common accessibility barrier.

Lack of descriptive text for essential website components is a common #accessibility barrier, says #MariahMuller via @CMIContent. click to tweet

In this example, sentences like “read more” and “learn more” are not explicit enough. Instead, label links or buttons with what the person can expect to find, such as “explore camps” or “read our full quest.”

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Fortunately, including descriptive page titles, headers, anchor text, and meta descriptions, as well as alt text for images, is also helpful for search engine optimization. That’s because these forms of structured data become accessible to machines: search engine crawlers that scroll through your site’s content. Similarly, they provide information for assistive technologies that help people with physical or visual disabilities to access web content.

2. Use enough color contrasts

Low-contrast content, such as light gray text on a white background, can make it difficult for some people to see and understand the content. Not only is it difficult for people with permanent visual impairment, it is also difficult for people to see in bright or natural light and on poorly calibrated screens.

WCAG contrast criteria specify minimum contrasts between text and background colors. For font sizes of 18 points or more (14 points if bold), the contrast should be 3 to 1. For smaller font sizes, the contrast should be 4.5 to 1. (This contrast tool free can help you determine if the color contrast ratio is the right ratio).

3. Create alternate formats for audio and visual content

Making videos, webinars, and audio content accessible includes alternative formats, such as transcripts. This text-based content can also be useful for SEO because it can be searched by crawlers.

Making videos, webinars, and audio content #accessible means including alternative formats, like transcripts, says #MariahMuller via @CMIContent. click to tweet

It can also be helpful to minimize background noise, include descriptive timestamps, and add a skip feature for your audience who may have some visual or auditory capabilities.

4. Manifest a good user experience

Remember, digital accessibility is not just about screen readers and color contrast. Web accessibility often comes down to optimizing the user experience (UX), which is also a priority for search platforms.

Think about the overall experience of browsing and consuming the content you create and publish. Is the blog content organized into clear and descriptive categories? Is your website searchable? Are long blocks of text broken up with engaging images and instructional graphics? Does your page load quickly and with the correct format? All of those attributes can affect the accessibility of your site.

5. Choose the language well

Believe it or not, even subtle language choices can make a big difference when it comes to accessibility.

Think of someone using a screen reader to consume the content. In these cases, phrases like “as mentioned above” or “as explained below” are inaccessible because the user cannot look up and down the page. Provide enough details in the current section. If necessary, adopt accessible phrases such as “as described in the next section” to set more understandable expectations for the listening content consumer.

Furthermore, language can also be a good opportunity for inclusion to address everything from gender identity, race, culture, etc. The objective is to avoid content that uses stereotypes, communicates prejudices or discriminates against people. This Atlassian language guide can help you understand more about inclusive written content.

Good content is accessible content

The goals of web accessibility initiatives and content marketing are the same: Give as many people as possible access to great, useful content. While accessible content may already be on your radar, it’s a never-ending learning process that requires deliberate attention and smart strategy.

All the tools mentioned in the article are suggested by the author. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones you’ve used).

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute