These are some general tips to help make your written content more accessible across the board. They do not tick specific boxes against the WCAG guidelines, but they allow us to consider how different users with different needs take in information. Dyslexia, fatigue, low vision or neurodiversity are just a few examples of situations that benefit greatly from accessibility-first written content.
1. Abbreviated terms or acronyms
We have to consider that not everybody understands our abbreviations or internal terms the same way that we do – the presumption should be that our user is the opposite of an expert.
Some of these situations, such as fatigue, can throw anyone into question, and is not a conventional disability. Even someone leaning more towards ‘expert’ can forget what CAMHS stands for during a tired moment – they too would need accessible content.
Therefore we should aim to spell these things out, write out our abbreviations in full and break our acronyms down. At a minimum, we should be doing that for the first instance of an abbreviation or acronym on each page – but optimally, we would do this as often as possible.
Let’s look at an example:
‘Mon-Fri 9-5pm’.
While it seems obvious that ‘Mon’ is ‘Monday’, ‘Fri’ is ‘Friday’, and ‘9’ means ‘9am’, it will not be obvious to everyone.
Furthermore, using symbols that have common visual connotations but are otherwise named as something else can cause confusion. For example, screen readers would pronounce this ‘Mon hyphen fri 9 hypen 5 p m’ – which is not what you would intend for it to be read out as. To reach the intended pronunciation, it would have to be written out so:
‘Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm’.
At the same time as being clearest to visual users, this greatly benefits the user who cannot understand the abbreviations or symbols.
2. Write shorter, more consumable content
While in the moment it is easy to write a lot about a subject, it isn’t always easy for the users to read a lot of content simply to find the one thing they need. If you happen to be reading on a mobile device, that can be difficult enough, but more so when paragraphs are long and content lacks structure.
Add to this considerations like dyslexia, fatigue, or something as simple as a headache – users are not always in a position to read longform content.
As such, it is important to clearly structure out content, and keep important information concise and to-the-point. Think shorter paragraphs with clear sections and headings, using lists but avoiding making them incredibly long, and as mentioned above, keeping abbreviations to a minimum so that content is more easily consumed. This helps every user find exactly what they need much quicker than having to read through paragraphs and paragraphs, ensuring that their user experience is as best as possible.
3. Consider using additional formats
Some users like written content, however we all have different learning styles. Some users may prefer to watch a video of someone explaining a topic as opposed to reading it. Just ensure that where video is used, captions, subtitles and ideally transcripts are available. More information about how to make video accessible can be found on the WCAG website.