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).