10 Point Accessible Content Checklist

10 Simple things writers can do to improve web accessibility

1. Give your content a unique title

Using a strong, unique and meaningful title that will clearly describe the purpose your content. This will not only assist screen readers, but also search engines.

2. Use headings to organise content

Make use of the heading structures in your content management system using the correct heading level and structure your content using meaningful headings.

3. Use plain English

Keep your language simple, at a high school reading level. If acronyms, jargon or technical language is required, provide plain English alternatives or a glossary.

4. Make your text easy to read

Choose left aligned text, rather than justified to improve readability and use the ordered lists provided in your content management system to present appropriate content.

5. Make links descriptive

Avoid using catchalls like ‘Click here’, ‘More info’ and ‘here’. Give your link a meaningful description to assist scan reading and screen readers.

6. Use meaningful alt-text on images

If an image is purely decorative set alt text to null (i.e. alt=””) otherwise use a description that would help a visually impaired person understand what is being represented.

7. Provide text alternatives for audio/video

Add synchronised captions to your video and provide a full transcript for both audio and video.

8. Use tables appropriately

When presenting tabular information, use an actual table, not an image and ensure headings are used.

9. Pay attention to colour contrast

Before overriding the default colours of your content management system, consider the colour contrast. If in doubt use a colour contrast analyser to check.

10. Images of text are bad

Avoid using images of text except for purely decorative purposes. Instead, use real text or ensure there is a text alternative (like an alt tag) available.