This is for authors and editors of content on websites including guides need a deeper understanding of readability and writing best practices as well as media accessibility.
Introduction
From Ireland’s National Disability Authority’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design:
Content is king; it is what makes your site special and attractive to users. You should always write clear and consistent content to ensure that all users can benefit from it, regardless of any impairment.
Users read and interact with digital content in a very different way to printed material. You must present digital content in a way that allows users to rapidly absorb and understand the information you are communicating.
In essence:
- Write clear and concise content, and prioritise the most important information;
- Ensure image use is appropriate and relevant, and provide equivalent descriptions of all images for those who will not be able to see them;
- Present data, including tables and charts, as clearly and simply as possible;
- Content should be specifically written or modified, and prepared for digital consumption – you should not simply reuse documents prepared for print.
Core skills
Go through the different sources to learn about each topic.
- Media accessibility
- Images Tutorial from W3C
- An alt Decision Tree from W3C
- Making Audio and Video Media Accessible from W3C
- Online writing and readability
- Using content interfaces properly
- Accessibility in WYSIWYG Editors video recording from DrupalSouth (WYSIWYG means "What You See Is What You Get")
Other general sources
Check out some of these great additional resources: