Accessible Communications

Accessible Communication is responding to the fact that people have different communication needs. It’s developing your way of communicating to meet those needs.

As organisations, we are constantly sharing information and communicating with people.

Doing our best to make sure that as many people as possible can access the information we provide is really important. No one should be left out because they can’t access our content. We have a responsibility to try and make sure this doesn’t happen.

We may not get it right every time, but we need to start, try, and keep on trying and take steps to make improvements and adjustments all the time.

Practical steps you can take:

1. Start now – commit to taking action.
2. Do one thing at a time – avoid overwhelm.
3. Keep trying.
4. Write in plain language.
5. Use shorter sentences and bullet points.
6. Think about the default font size for emails. 12 points is the minimum recommended size for general use. 16 is better for people with visual impairments.
7. Use Alt text or add descriptions to images. Accessible Social shares useful guidance and examples.
8. Use CamelCase to separate the words in a phrase without spaces, by making the first letter of each word capitalised, for example when using a hashtag in a social media post. Screen readers cannot identify the individual words in a hashtag without CamelCase.
9. Use headings, images and videos to break up blocks of text.
10. Avoid jargon.
11. Avoid abbreviations.
12. Use a tool like WebAIM contrast checker which checks the difference in light intensity between text and background, to ensure it is easy to read.
13. Consider diversity in your text and images – can your audience relate?
14. Check in with your audience.
15. Pick one or two tips and try them. Make them a regular part of your comms.