During our most recent Meet the Author session, we sat down with communications experts Matisse Hamel-Nelis and Lisa Reimers for an interactive online session on how to make your message resonate with every audience.
Understanding Accessible Content
Accessibility is about ensuring that everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can access and use digital content effectively. With 1 in 4 people were classified as disabled in the UK , it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s essential for creating truly inclusive experiences that serve your entire audience.
According to the UK’s Equality Act 2010, a person is considered to have a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on normal daily activities.
“Accessible communications are designing information for our future selves.” Lisa Riemers
The Four Principles of Accessibility
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide 13 guidelines organised under four core principles. These global standards, published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, form the foundation of accessible design:
- Perceivable – Can users see, hear or sense your content? Information cannot be invisible or impossible to access.
- Operable – Can users actually work with what they’re trying to access?
- Understandable – Does your content make sense? Can people understand it easily?
- Robust – Your content shouldn’t break when someone accesses it differently than you expected.
Understanding the WCAG standard range:
WCAG standards range from Level A (least strict) to AAA (most strict), with Level AA being the recommended baseline for most organisations.
“Progress over perfection in accessible communications.” Matisse Hamel-Nelis
Creating Accessible Content: Practical Guidelines
Use Plain Language
Plain language means your audience understands your content the first time they read it. Not only is this essential for the 10% of people who are dyslexic, but also for those who speak English as a second language and those who are autistic and may interpret idioms and metaphors literally.
White space, simple language and short sentences remove barriers that these groups often face when accessing information.
An example is referring patients to “Xray” is often clearer than using broader categories such as imaging. While precise terminology is valuable, specialised terms should be clearly defined on first use to avoid confusion.
Structure Your Content Clearly
People don’t read online content the same way they read printed material. Research from NNGroup dating back to 2006 shows that people scan in F-patterns. They’re busy, they scroll, and they need to find key information quickly. To ensure a smooth structure use headings, subheadings and paragraphs to give your page clear structure. Left-aligned text is easier to read. Make it easy for users to scan down your content and find what they need.
Write Descriptive Links
Your links should include information-bearing words that make sense out of context. Screen reader users often navigate by jumping from link to link, so each one needs to be meaningful on its own.
Never Rely on Just One Sense
Don’t depend solely on colour, shape, size, sound or visual location to convey information. Avoid descriptions like “the table below” or “the image on the left” these aren’t helpful for people who can’t see them and may not be accurate depending on the device being used.
Make Multimedia Accessible
What happens if a video won’t load, doesn’t appear, can’t be played or freezes? What if someone can’t see it, can’t access the audio, or left their headphones at home and doesn’t want to be “that person” on the train?
Videos need transcripts and captions. Images need alternative text and captions to explain them. Never rely on colour, video or images alone to convey information.
Provide Text Alternatives for Visual Information
Sometimes graphs and flowcharts help people understand concepts, but you must provide text descriptions so those who can’t see them aren’t excluded. People who use screen readers rely on alt text to describe images. If a flowchart is too complex to explain in alt text, anyone who can’t see it will be excluded from that information.
The Cultural Dimension
Accessibility also extends to cultural understanding. When working with international teams, seemingly innocent phrases can cause confusion or upset. British expressions like “that’s a bit of a shame” meant to express mild disappointment can inadvertently cause significant misunderstandings abroad. Using clear, unambiguous language prevents these situations from escalating.
The Bottom Line
Accessible content isn’t just better for people with disabilities, it’s better for everyone. When you use plain language, create clear structure with headings and lists, write effective alt text and make images and graphics accessible, you create content that serves your entire audience more effectively.
Accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have feature. It’s an essential component of good design and effective communication.
“Ensuring your communications are accessible broadens your audience immediately.” Matisse Hamel-Nelis
You can catch up on the webinar here:
What is Meet The Author?
Hosted and organised by VMA Group’s Crystle Pearce, the ‘Meet the Author’ event series is a warm and welcoming place for all communications professionals to gather over some drinks and listen to some of the finest authors of communications literature.
