Why the Accessibility of Your Content Matters

Would you launch a website that 26% of American adults may not be able to understand? If not, read on. 

Understanding disability 

61 million adults in the United States live with a disability.¹ This means that one in four Americans may not be able to understand the content on your website. 

Disabilities come in all shapes and sizes and can be permanent or temporary. Disabilities generally fall into five main categories: 

• Auditory. Auditory disabilities can range from being hard of hearing to complete deafness. 
• Cognitive, learning, and neurological. Cognitive, learning, and neurological disabilities involve neurodiversity and disorders of the nervous system. This includes how well we hear, move, see, speak, and understand information. 
• Physical. Physical disabilities include weakness and limitations of muscular control. This can include tremors, lack of coordination, or paralysis. This also includes a loss of sensation, joint disorders (like arthritis), pain, and missing limbs. 
• Speech. Speech disabilities include producing speech recognized by others or by voice recognition software. 
• Visual. Visual disabilities can range from low vision to blindness. Some people are color blind, or have an increased sensitivity to bright colors.² 

The elderly are part of this conversation, too 

As people get older, their cognitive abilities may decline. Websites, applications, and tools built for people with disabilities make them easier for our older population to use, too.⁴  

Some declining abilities may include: 

• Vision. Reduced contrast sensitivity, color perception, and near-focus. These issues make it difficult to read web pages. 
• Physical ability. Reduced dexterity and fine motor control. These issues make it difficult to use a mouse and click small targets. 
• Hearing. Difficulty hearing higher-pitched sounds and separating sounds. This can make it difficult to hear podcasts and other audio, especially when there is background music. 
• Cognitive ability. Reduced short-term memory, difficulty concentrating, and being distracted. These issues can make it difficult to follow navigation and complete online tasks. 

The problem with your content 

Was your website content written by your marketing team? The intern you hired for the summer? The medical or financial experts you have on staff? These options are great if hiring a content professional with accessibility experience isn’t in the budget. 

But, what they don’t know, may be hurting you. 

An example 

Take the ampersand. It’s cute, kitschy, and might have saved you a few characters-worth of space. 

Have you considered that the seemingly delightful ampersand has serious accessibility issues? 

• Based on usability evidence, “and” is more widely known and requires less mental effort to understand.  
• An ampersand can be a visual distraction since it’s taller than most letters and has a unique shape.  
• People who do not speak English as their native language may not understand what it means. 
• Some screen reading and text-to-speech software and applications need the ampersand sign to be coded differently in HTML. “And” is easy to code and non-problematic for speech software.⁵ 

Now that I’ve got you firmly on Team Anti-Ampersand, you might be thinking to yourself, “our web team already runs tests to ensure WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guide) compliance, so shouldn’t we be covered?” 

WCAG falls short on language 

The Web Content Accessibility Guide is a common set of guidelines to ensure your website is within accessibility standards. But, it falls short when it comes to language guidelines.  

Within the WCAG, you’ll find clear and actionable guidelines for colors, functionality, stuff that flashes, etc. What’s missing is evidence and guidelines on whether there’s actually a difference in how people understand things in all caps (aside from yelling), or how jargon and buzzwords affect a person’s understanding. 

What it means to make content more accessible 

Making sure your content is accessible takes tools and some playing around with wording. It also means foregoing all your jargon and witty marketing copy in favor of plain English. 

I can feel my marketing and advertising friends cringe. Yes. I’m suggesting you replace wit and buzzwords with plain English. Think: shortened sentences, simplified wording, and a conversational tone. 

Plain English will help with people experiencing: 

• Time pressures. Simply written content is easier to scan and absorb.
• Stress. When anxious it is harder to absorb complex language. 
• Multi-tasking. With divided attention, you need simple information. 
• Low literacy. Complex vocabulary and terms may not be familiar. 
• Cognitive impairments. Simple language takes less cognitive load. 
• Motor impairments. Clear, concise content needs less navigation. 
• Non-fluency. Assists with those whose vocabulary is less extensive. 
• Sight loss. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) recommends using plain English. 
• Autism. The National Autistic Society advises against the use of jargon. 
• First language sign language. Complex vocabulary may be less familiar.⁶ 

How to get started with content accessibility 

Here are a few free and paid tools that I use to help me assess and adjust the accessibility of content: 

• Readability Guidelines (free). Start here to learn everything you can about the basics of readable content. I purchased the book so I always have it handy (and to support the cause!). 
• Hemingway App (free). Hemingway helps to determine the complexity of your content, highlighting sentences that may be complicated or too long, areas that might be unclear, and reading grade level. This is a great place to start for accessible content. 
• Wordtune (free and paid). While this doesn’t have a ton of accessibility features Wordtune is a Chrome plugin that can help you “tune” your content’s tone to be a little more casual, simplifying it in the process. 
• Readable (free and paid). I unabashedly love Readable. It’s a word geek’s dream. Readable has a number of different algorithms specific to your needs or industry. It can run your content through these algorithms to determine its readability and highlight where it may need some editing. 

A little dab'll do you 

Any effort towards content accessibility is a good one. Start small. Start with your next article or your next web page. It could mean 26% more people are able to read and understand your content. 

//

Sources 

¹ https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html  

² https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/abilities-barriers/  

³ https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/tools-techniques/ 

⁴ https://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/ 

⁵ https://readabilityguidelines.co.uk/grammar-points/ampersands/  

⁶ https://readabilityguidelines.co.uk/clear-language/plain-english/