Accessibility

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.

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.