Accessibility for content creators

Creating accessible content is all about text: writing good text, using semantic HTML to give text meaning, and providing text alternatives for non-text content.

Writing good text

General guidance

These tips can help to write effective text:

• Use clear and plain language throughout
• Use simple sentences and bullets
• Use UPPERCASE, bold, and italic sparingly

• Explain unusual words and jargon

• Explain abbreviations in the first instance

• Do not rely on shape, size, or visual location to identify parts of a page

• Use images and diagrams to support text

Interface elements

Follow this guidance to ensure that interfaces are easily understood:

• Make sure there's a concise, descriptive, page title that's sufficiently different from other pages
  • The main heading of the page should be very similar (or identical to) the title of the page
• Navigation is consistent and helpful, including any relative navigation (you are here, next and previous) and Tables of Contents
• Link text describes where you go when you follow the link
  • The text is similar to the heading of the page it targets
  • Don't use "click here" because it doesn't make sense out of context
• Button text describes the action that happens when you use the button
  • Don't use 'submit'

Use semantic HTML to give text meaning

Semantic HTML can also help to to make your content accessible. Here are some tips:

• Use the right element for the thing (headings, lists, links, buttons).
• Headings are used liberally and no heading levels are skipped. The text is clear and meaningful.

• Tables have a caption. The rows and columns have headers, where appropriate.

Provide text alternatives for non-text content

Non-text content, such as images or video, can present challenges for users with accessibility requirements. Follow this guidance to create effective text alternatives:

• All non-text information, such as images, audio, and video, has a text equivalent.
• Images have alt text that succinctly conveys the function and meaning of the images. The alt text:
  • should not include "image of" or similar
  • should not repeat text that's next to the image
  • should be contextually appropriate (the same image in different contexts might have different alt text)
• Pay attention to how elements are nested - when an image is the only content of a link, the alt text of the image will serve as the link text.
• Empty alt text (alt="") should be used for decorative images.
• Charts usually shouldn't have alt text on their image. Instead, they could have:
  • a table of the data
  • a long description in text
  • a link to a long description in text
• Audio has captions (open or closed, not just subtitles (which are text of only the dialogue)).
• Videos have a text or audio alternative that provides equivalent information.
• There are no images of text unless absolutely necessary (and in that case, the image must have alt text).