Clear Language Club (Page 2)

WAVE – web accessibility evaluation tool Video post Link post

You may already know about WAVE, which is one of many free tools that helps you check the accessibility of a website or single web page.

WAVE^® is a suite of evaluation tools that helps authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content.

The second clause in that last sentence is some way from being written in clear language, but it is important.

WAVE is fantastic at automatically picking up errors in your website. But you – dear human – must be the one to look for and identify accessibility issues more generally, and especially with your content.

Watch the 11-minute explainer video to get a good introduction to WAVE. Then head to the home page, enter a web address and poke around to see how it works hands on.

Video subtitles, captions, audio descriptions and transcripts Link post

Accessibility

This from Darek Kay is a perfectly succinct explanation of the difference between video subtitles, captions, audio descriptions and transcripts:

As I was preparing the requirements for an accessible web video player, there was some confusion around subtitles, closed captions, audio descriptions and transcripts. In this post, I use interactive examples to show the difference. I also provide related success criteria from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

I'm sure there will have been times where I have previously talked about subtitles when what I really meant was closed captions. Maybe for you too?

If you create videos of any kind, this is the sort of stuff you should know. And of course, video-making tools are now so much better at helping you create and add subtitles, captions and transcripts. There isn't much of an excuse to not make your video content accessible.

For example, I use the excellent Descript to make podcasts. Add an audio or video file to your project and the app will auto-generate a transcript for you. The transcript is never perfect, but it gives you a fantastic start by doing the bulk of the work for you. A few tweaks and it's ready to go.

Challenging ageism: Inclusive writing for the 50+ audience Link post

Inclusive writing

Apart from the personal devastation of being just a mere half-decade away from joining this particular user group, there is lots of good stuff in this piece by Bryan Kelly on writing for people over 50:

Designing for older adults isn’t about simplifying everything or creating a “senior version” of your digital experience. It’s about designing with respect, complexity, and care — just like you would for any other audience.

That's the gist of it, but Kelly also includes a range of research-backed personas to help you think about how different people might approach your content. Basically, it's 2026 and we are quite some way past the notion of the 'silver surfer'.

"Being clear in your language is the fastest route to making someone else understand what you are trying to communicate. Nothing else."

Sarah Winters and Rachel Edwards, Content Design

UX Writing: How to Get the Writing Done Video post Link post

Writing

I can recommend this short talk on the writing process by Scott Kubie, which sets out four stages for each 'assignment'.

It's all great, but I want to particularly second the idea of creating an outline before you get started. That could be a few bullet points, draft headings or even a sentence that describes what will go where.

Things might change when you get into the meat of things, but that's okay. Everything changes. Change is good. Life is change.

Scott has a personal website absolutely full of content-related resources that you should also visit and explore.

How to design a style guide that people actually use Link post

Style guides

Some useful insight on designing a style guide from Angela Moore writing on the excellent Scroll blog. If you've ever needed a style guide or you have one and no one uses it, this is a really good place to start.

Allow me to share a tip of my own. It sounds silly, but there is one style guide of mine that got used the most. I knew it would make a huge impact if everyone embraced it, but there was low digital maturity in the team. So I printed hard copies out and put them on everyone's desks.

It worked because they could see it right there in front of them and watch each other use it as a reference document. Within a few months, they were adding new stuff to the guide themselves and gradually we all moved to the digital version, which was collectively kept up to date. Win!

WAVE – web accessibility evaluation tool Video post Link post

Video subtitles, captions, audio descriptions and transcripts Link post

Challenging ageism: Inclusive writing for the 50+ audience Link post

"Being clear in your language is the fastest route to making someone else understand what you are trying to communicate. Nothing else."

UX Writing: How to Get the Writing Done Video post Link post

How to design a style guide that people actually use Link post

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"Being clear in your language is the fastest route to making someone else understand what you are trying to communicate. Nothing else."