Accessibility

I'm still working on a service for NHS England, so my nose is constantly in and out of the service manual and design system. There is lots of good guidance on this page about accessibility and content, but I particularly enjoyed this nugget:

Clear content helps everyone and it's the most important thing you can do to make things accessible. It will help more people than any other accessibility requirement.

Too right.

I can really recommend this post on web accessibility by Andrew Tipp at Suffolk County Council. It provides a good introduction to some accessibility basics, but it also includes some good reminders for those who've been doing this stuff for a while.

I shared this post by Marian Avery on directional text in the newsletter, but it's worth a link post of its own.

There are better, clearer, ways to tell people where things are than by using directional text. As well as avoiding problems like locations changing with device type, and making things more difficult for people with low or no vision, you’ll end up with better content.

There's lots of good, practical advice in this piece. I think one of the easiest ways to help people navigate your website is by writing meaningful links. It solves a lot of problems for all users. And it becomes second nature quite quickly.

For example, I could write: 'Subscribe to the newsletter from the main menu on the left.' But the menu is not 'on the left' if you are reading on mobile. And there is no menu at all if you are reading via an RSS feed reader.

Instead, I can write a meaningful link: 'Subscribe to the newsletter.' There is no need for directional text because the link is right there. And the link itself describes exactly where the user will end up. Bonus: 7 fewer words.

I'm sure you have either been told or find yourself telling other people that you should avoid PDFs at all costs. But can you always remember the reasons why that might be a good idea?

Enter this page in the NHS service manual, which says:

Creating a new PDF document is a last resort and you should avoid it unless there is a specific user need for it. You should always provide an HTML version too.

Not only can you use this page to bolster your no-PDFs argument, it also includes examples of when you might really need to use a PDF and, if so, how to do it in the best possible way.

Adding alt text to an image is a way of describing its content and meaning in an alternative format. Enjoy these examples from Holly Tuke, who has gathered a collection of organisations and individuals doing alt text well on social media.

Here's a good introduction to alt text on GOV.UK.