Accessibility. How can you make your content truly inclusive for everyone?

Accessibility is one of the key components for creating a truly inclusive website. This means creating an environment in which any user can freely and easily access the content on your site, no matter their ability. As content providers, not only do we need to be aware of the current standards on the market, but also how to implement them in our everyday work.

What are the core principles of web accessibility?

WCAG 2.0 outlines four key principles: perceivability, operability, understandability, and robustness.
These principles help ensure your content is accessible to users with diverse needs. They guide how content should be presented, navigated, understood, and supported across devices and assistive technologies.

3di’s Jakub Wiśniewski also sheds more light on the importance of the ease with which you can find information throughout your content in one of his articles. Read more about it in 3 things your product documentation says about your company.

How can you make content perceivable for all users?

Provide content in multiple formats and label all elements clearly. Use alternative text for images, captions for videos, and Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) labels for interactive elements. Ensure decorative elements are tagged appropriately to avoid confusion. Enhance readability with good contrast, clear fonts, and distinguishable sections.

How do you improve operability for diverse users?

Design intuitive navigation and support multiple input methods. You can increase the operability of your content by extending the number of input devices that users can choose to navigate between its sections. Moreover, a meaningful design behind the structure of your content helps your readers find their way around its various elements.

One sure way of increasing operability is integrating keyboard use. There are a number of pitfalls you should avoid when making your content keyboard accessible. Often, when navigating a page with just the keyboard, users can get stuck between two selected objects, such as a table and image. If that happens, they are unable to progress through the content.

You must always allow users to easily select the desired object, and when the user moves onto the next element, it should proceed in a logical sequence. If your website contains interactive and time-sensitive components, provide a means of controlling them and make sure there is enough time for the user to react.

Finding content and determining where you are when progressing through it is equally as important. Titles and headings should always directly relate to the information they precede. When you repeat information, it’s a good idea to offer ways of skipping these sections. Descriptive links and references, site maps and a table of contents are also crucial for easy navigation. Breadcrumbs showing the reader their current location within the larger structure of the content are also useful.

Case study:
In the work that 3di has done for its telecommunications customers, some of the core features at the forefront of our design were all about easy and clear navigation that facilitates the findability of all information:

• 3di implemented the breadcrumbs which show users where they are.
• We made sure the side menu is included and easily navigable.
• Both of these are great for a keyboard-friendly design on your site.

What makes content understandable to everyone?

Designing your content with readability, predictability, and input assistance in mind is a good way to achieve this. Identify the page’s default language and tag other languages. Define jargon and abbreviations. Offer simplified versions or alternative media. Avoid unexpected UI changes and provide error messages with guidance.

So, what does readability specifically mean for your website?

1. First of all, the easiest thing you can do is find out whether the default language is identified for the page.
2. Next, make sure to tag any instances of content in other languages to separate them.
3. Then, one of the possibilities to consider under this guideline is implementing definitions for unusual words, such as idioms or jargon, and abbreviations.
4. Additionally, you can also work on your content to be appropriate for people with different levels of reading ability.
   You can do this by providing simplified language versions or choosing to replace the text with other media.
5. Finally, you can also help your audience by adding pronunciation mechanisms if a given word’s meaning depends on its pronunciation.

What helps with making your content more readable? Designing your content! Delve deep into user experiences and writing proper technical documentation thanks to our own Barbara Kujawska’s (UX) writing the docs.

The second factor, predictability, means your site should appear and operate in predictable ways. Make sure that focusing on one particular element doesn’t trigger any huge changes. These may include pop-up windows, switching focus to another item, or form submission.

What’s more, the standard elements should not surprise the users with any extra features, and the site should have consistent navigation and identification of its elements. Any changes should happen when users consciously make them happen, or at least when a notice tells the users about them beforehand.

And finally, input assistance deals with helping users avoid and correct mistakes. This means your website needs to clearly identify any mistakes and communicate them to the user. You can also help your users by including labels, instructions, or even examples within the forms they fill in. Spell-checking and extra-information mechanisms are always welcome.

Another facet of input assistance concerns the user’s legal commitments or financial transactions. In these cases, the user needs to be certain they can undo, review, confirm, and correct their information before they finally send it.

Here are a few tips for content understandability:

How do you ensure your content is technologically robust?

Design for compatibility across browsers, devices, and assistive tech. You should never force your users into a position where they can’t use their default browser or device. Making sure any assisting technologies can read and adapt the content is especially important. To prevent such a situation, the website needs to be constantly updated to the latest web standards.

Additionally, any new components need to be as accessible as links, buttons, checkboxes, or any other standard HTML elements. Websites requiring JavaScript to work properly are examples of content with decreased accessibility.

Example:
A page with JavaScript disabled should still display correctly. If layout breaks, accessibility suffers, like in the following visualization.

Why is accessibility a continuous process?

Never stop making your content ever more accessible. WCAG 2.0 may be intimidating at first glance but you can always start by focusing on its easier aspects. Even small changes can greatly enhance the accessibility of your website, Don’t be afraid of simplifying content – this can make your site more accessible for all users. The quicker and easier it is to read and comprehend your content, the better for all of your users. Make sure you also inform your audience about all the solutions you’ve already implemented. This makes them feel safe and catered for in your digital channels, which can be key to fostering good customer relationships.

Accessibility is never done — it’s an ongoing commitment. There is no such thing as perfect accessibility, which on its own is good news, as you don’t have to strive for it! Instead, think of ways in which you can increase the accessibility of your website now and in the future.

FAQs about accessibility in content design

Here’s a quick list to get you started:

At least quarterly or after major updates. Regular checks help maintain compliance and usability.

Yes! Clearer navigation, readable text, and intuitive design help everyone. Accessibility often improves overall UX.

Use tools like WAVE, Axe, and Lighthouse. These can identify issues and suggest fixes.