Mention accessible content design and a lot of people working in user centred design will immediately think about how a service looks.

Is that light grey divider line visible to users with low vision? How will this design work in dark mode? And are the colours we’re using in our design compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Government Digital Service (GDS)?

However, while making sure your contrasts are accessible is incredibly important, there’s a lot more to consider when designing accessible content.

Using accessible language

Good content design and accessibility go hand in hand.

Using clear and concise language when creating online content helps to ensure that anyone reading your content can understand and use it.

Try to avoid jargon, idioms and overly complex language. And be direct and specific when giving instructions. This supports people with cognitive disabilities, lower literacy levels and anyone who is using English as an additional language.

A common argument content designers face when advocating for simple language is the assumption that a service’s users don’t have any accessibility requirements or will understand the technical language used.

While this could occasionally be true, it’s worth keeping in mind that user needs change over time and designing plain content helps everyone to access your content more easily in any situation.

Think about those who may be distracted while reading your content: a new parent who is trying to access information about child care payments while nursing their baby, or someone who is self-employed looking to complete an online tax return from a busy cafe.

These examples are situational meaning that they are often not represented in user research, but could impact anyone at any time.

By writing in plain English you’re ensuring that people can easily find and understand the information they need at all times.

Structuring content logically

Being predictable isn’t always a bad thing.

When it comes to content design, consistency often makes a service more accessible.

Using layouts and page structures that are widely recognisable and fit users’ existing mental models can help them to access and navigate a service with ease.

Structuring content in short sentences and paragraphs avoids presenting too much information or too many choices at once.

While using bullet points and headings to break up big sections of text helps everyone to scan and understand content more easily.

These considerations can be especially important for autistic and dyslexic people and those with ADHD.

Similarly adding commas into numbers in the thousands and higher can be super helpful for users with dyscalculia. For example: 1,657 vs. 1657.

By reducing as much of the cognitive load as possible, users can focus more clearly on the task they need to do and face less frustration as they move through the user journey.

Another important consideration is screen readers.

To make information as accessible as possible a screen reader should be able to easily scan and translate your content.

This means making sure that you’re using:

  • heading tags correctly and in the right order
  • alt text on images to explain what a picture shows for users that are blind or have low vision
  • descriptive links and microcopy on buttons that clearly describe to the user where the link or button will take them.

All these things will help to improve the overall usability of your content while ensuring it can be read by screen readers and other accessibility tools, such as immersive readers.

Making interactions inclusive

Using plain language and structuring your content well are important steps towards making your service accessible, but accessible interactions are crucial to ensure that your service can be used by anyone.

Keyboard navigation can be used as an alternative to a mouse or trackpad by users with both permanent or temporary disabilities and through preference. Because of this it’s important to design services with this in mind.

Accessible feedback loops that give users clear confirmation of any actions they’ve taken is just good design, it makes sense. However, these are also important for users with cognitive disabilities and those that aren’t digitally savvy.

Having a screen that pops up after you’ve submitted a form applying for a job that says “You’ve successfully submitted your application for the role of Content Designer at Hippo Digital”, for example, reassures the user and helps them to understand that their task is complete.

The accessibility of forms could be an entire blog post on its own, but while we’re discussing accessible and inclusive interactions it’s worth discussing edge cases that often make forms inaccessible for some users.

Requiring someone to provide their sex, gender or title on a form but not providing any options apart from male or female can make it impossible for some users to complete and submit their information.

Another common one is requiring a fixed address or bank account, which some users may not have if they’ve recently left prison, have left an abusive relationship or are sleeping rough.

This is why it’s always worth considering whether you really need to collect that information from a user, and if you do, exploring the most inclusive way to get it.

Accessibility improves experiences for us all

Sometimes assumptions are made when designing content for services that the users of a service won’t have any accessibility requirements. I’ve particularly experienced this with internal users within defence and emergency services due to the entry requirements for a lot of frontline roles.

However, this thinking doesn’t take into consideration a changing, more inclusive world and the possibility of temporary disabilities. This could be broken limbs, temporary sight loss or the cognitive impact of certain medications and mental health conditions.

It’s important to design for these temporary disabilities, as well as considering that not all permanent disabilities are present from birth.

Using this example, even with insights from accessibility testing we have no way of predicting when a user’s access needs might change.

And if in doubt, consider that designing accessible content makes the experience better for everyone. So it’s a safe and inclusive approach to always design your content with empathy.