Make writing accessible

When writing for the web we must ensure that all visitors to our websites can gain access to and understand the content. This includes users who may be visually or physically impaired, have cognitive difficulties such as dyslexia, or have mobile or non-standard internet devices.

For someone using enabling technologies to process web pages the intelligibility and clarity of the text in a site becomes even more crucial.

Key points are as follows.

Clear titling and labelling

On the web the 'page title' is the text usually displayed across the top of a web browser window. The page title should accurately describe the content of the page.

The page title is usually what will be displayed to users when they use search engines. So the page title needs to use language that makes sense when taken out of context. Usually the title is also used as the default name when someone bookmarks a page.

Delete 'introductory' text in a page title such as 'welcome to'. Concentrate on using nouns or words that users will be likely to type into search engines.

Textual description

If you have a picture, graph, movie or some other interactive element on your web page, write a piece of text to describe it. Check how well this description works by imagining that you are describing the web page out loud over the phone. When you come to the picture, graph, movie or whatever, think what you would say to the listener to help them to understand the image and its context.

Generally speaking, introduce items such as video or other multimedia before they appear in the page rather than place an explanation after the object. If you have transcripts of video content make it clear that these are available as alternatives.

If your content includes tables of information make sure there is a description - a 'summary' of what the table represents.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Expand all abbreviations and acronyms the first time they occur within a page except in headings.

A user can jump in and out of any page within a website, but you cannot assume that because an acronym has been expanded elsewhere, the user has already seen this.

Colour

Do not rely on the use of colour alone to highlight useful information, or to gain understanding of the content. For example, avoid a situation where red text is used to indicate an error or for emphasis.

Users who are visually impaired or who do not have colour displays need other clues to help them understand the information.

Links

If you have a passage of text and want to make links from within the text to other pages a web link should always be placed within descriptive, meaningful text.

Do not use vague, generic words such as 'click', 'press', 'more'. If you have been supplied with copy containing such phrases, reword it or restructure the sentence to put the emphasis on the nouns that describe the link.

A link should always describe the destination of the link not 'how' to get there. Think of it as describing the content at which the user will arrive if they follow the link.

Give as much detail as you can. Imagine a web page that only contained that single link - does the text of the link make sense on its own?

Dates/culturally specific formats

Web pages may be viewed by people in other countries, so try to avoid formats that are well known to conflict, for example in Britain the date format is DD/MM/YY but in the USA it is MM/DD/YY, which means a date such as 01/05/02 is likely to cause confusion to an international audience.

Instead use clear, generic formats such as 1 May 2002.

If you need to display a price in pounds sterling and know that your audience will include European Union customers then consider also displaying the price equivalent in Euros or linking to a currency converter page.

Writing style

The Web Accessibility Initiative website lists the following suggestions to make content easier for everyone to read, although they are aimed in particular at those people with reading and/or cognitive difficulties.

• Strive for clear and accurate headings and link descriptions. Use informative headings - as in a newspaper - so that users can scan a page quickly for information rather than reading it in detail. Use link phrases that are concise and that make sense when read out of context or as part of a series of links. (Some users browse by jumping from link to link and listening only to link text.)
• State the topic of the sentence or paragraph at the beginning of the sentence or paragraph - this is called ‘front-loading’. This will help both people who are skimming visually and people who use speech synthesisers. ‘Skimming’ with speech synthesisers means that the user jumps from sentence to sentence, or paragraph to paragraph, and listens to just enough words to determine if there is anything there that interests them. Therefore, if the main idea is in the middle or at the end, users may have to listen to most of the text before finding out what they want to know, or they may give up and go away.
• Limit each paragraph to one main idea.
• Avoid slang, jargon and specialised meanings of familiar words, unless defined within your document.
• Use plain English. For example, use ‘begin’ rather than ‘commence’ or ‘try’ rather than ‘endeavour’.
• Use active rather than passive verbs, where appropriate.
• Avoid complex sentence structures.
• Do not use HTML tags without seeking expert advice. Some HTML tags aid accessibility, while others hinder it.