People are always working on making their content more accessible to wider audiences. But writing quality content that is accessible means more than just making the text readable and understandable. Content being accessible also means that you have to lead your reader through the text in a way that offers value and an understanding of what the content is all about.
What is Accessible Writing?
Writers are supposed to create content that different people can consume. The content should be accessible to people who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or braille interface, as well as people using mobile and desktop devices, and people of various cognitive capabilities.
You should consider things like:
- Is there too much jargon?
- Is the message still clear without the images, videos, or colors?
- Is the markup clean?
- Does it work on mobile?
- Is the content scannable?
In order to make the content accessible, you need to:
- Use headings. They make the content more scannable.
- Avoid directional language. Put directions just below the title.
- Create a hierarchy. Put the most important information first and elaborate later.
- Label required fields in forms clearly. Carefully think about what is required.
- Use descriptive links. Don’t use ‘click here’ or ‘learn more’.
- Use simple language – shorter sentences and paragraphs, no jargon or slang, elaborate the abbreviations, and so on.
- Use alt text. This means that you should add a text that describes an image, in case a user can’t see the image.
- Put transcriptions on all videos.
- Have high contrast between background and font. The text needs to be easy to read. (Green text on a black background is a terrible option, for instance.)
- Avoid images if you can describe it in writing. Even though people love images, there are those who can’t see them, and this makes your text inaccessible to them.
Tools to Make Your Writing Accessible
Luckily, there are many tools out there that can make your writing more accessible for all audiences. Here are some of the best tools that can help you improve your content:
Via Writing and Writing Populist
Grammar is one of the most important things when it comes to the overall readability of your text. If grammar rules are not followed throughout the text, it can be hard for your readers to understand what it says. This is why these tools could make your life easier. These two are grammar checkers that work in a simple, yet effective way. You paste the finished text in their editor, and in a few seconds, you get a finished report on your grammar accuracy. The only difference between them is that Writing Populist offers a plagiarism checker.
Proofreading is a tedious task that no writer likes to do, but even the strongest of writers need it. Tiny mistakes can happen to anyone, but they make the text really confusing.
Luckily, there are tools that can help you out, and these two have been recommended by Revieweal. All you need to do is copy the text into their software and it discovers all of your mistakes.
My Writing Way and Simple Grad
There are many great blogs on the subject of writing, but these two are some of the best. You can visit them and read many accessibility writing tips and guidelines for better content, as well as find some tips from professionals who have done research and tried many different approaches to writing.
Essay Writer and OXEssays
These editing tools have been reviewed by OXessays reviews and their quality has been confirmed. Editing is quite time-consuming on its own and you can never be sure that it’s really up to code. However, with these tools all you need to do is enter your content, and they will let you know what should stay and what should go.
State Of Writing and Letsgoandlearn
Writing is always easier if you break it down into a series of simple steps or milestones. These tools give you an idea on what steps to take in order to finish the content properly. For instance, if you have a text of 2500 words to write, these tools break it down into small paragraphs and tasks related to SEO and accessibility.