10 FAQs about creating accessible digital content
Annie Mannion | 13 Sep 2023Creating accessible digital content is essential to ensure that your content is inclusive and can be accessed by individuals with disabilities.
Here are 10 frequently asked questions (FAQs) about creating accessible digital content:
1. What is accessible digital content?
Accessible digital content refers to content that is designed and formatted in a way that allows disabled people to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with content effectively. This includes content like websites, documents, videos, and images.
2. Why is accessible digital content important?
Accessible content ensures that everyone, including disabled people, can access and benefit from your digital materials. It promotes inclusivity, compliance with legal requirements, and improves user experience for all. Read our free factsheet about creating accessible documents to learn about the basics to remember for creating and editing documents.
3. What are some common disabilities that accessible content addresses?
Accessible content accommodates various disabilities, including visual impairments d/Deafness, limited mobility and cognitive impairments such as dyslexia.
4. How can I make my website accessible?
To make your website accessible, some of the basic things to do include providing alt text for images, using semantic HTML, ensuring keyboard navigation is possible, and offering text alternatives for multimedia content. Work to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Speak to our experts if you're looking for support to ensure your site is accessible.
5. What are the key principles of web accessibility (WCAG)?
The WCAG guidelines are based on four main principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR). These principles help ensure that web content is accessible to a wide range of users.
6. How can I create accessible documents, such as PDFs?
Creating accessible documents involves using proper headings, alternative text for images, accessible tables, and ensuring a logical reading order. Popular document authoring tools often provide accessibility features. Get expert training about PDF accessibility and accessible documents.
If you're looking to share accessibility knowledge across your organisation, have you thought about eLearning? Get advice about videos, PDFs, images, Word documents, PowerPoint, emails, spreadsheets and more.
7. Are there tools or software to help check for accessibility?
Yes, there are various accessibility evaluation tools and software available. These tools can automatically test web pages, documents, and multimedia for accessibility issues and provide guidance on how to fix them. Find out how to do your own accessibility testing.
8. What is captioning, and why is it important for video content?
Captioning involves adding text descriptions of spoken content in videos. It is commonly used by people with hearing impairments and provides additional benefits for other users too, including improved comprehension, language learning, and searchability. Learn how to create accessible videos.
9. How can I make social media content accessible?
Some ways to make social media content accessible are to use descriptive image alt text, write accessible captions, provide accessible links, and use inclusive language. Familiarise yourself with each platform's accessibility features and avoid using tools or functionality that don't offer an accessible experience.
Watch our free webinar recording of How to do accessible social media:
10. Is accessibility required by law?
Yes, in many countries, accessibility is mandated by law. For example, in the UK we have the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 (PSBAR).
In the United States, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require federal agencies and certain private businesses to provide accessible digital content. Laws and regulations vary by location. Learn more about Digital Accessibility Legislation.
Remember that creating accessible digital content is an ongoing process, and staying informed about best practices and guidelines is essential to ensure your content remains inclusive for all users.
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