5 Tips for Making Your Business Content More Accessible
No matter the industry you’re in, making content more accessible is important for inclusion and for reaching a wider target audience. The more focus you put on accessibility, the more this can build a more positive reputation for your brand, too. When focusing on producing informative and engaging content, whether it’s your business website, company blogs, or video content, you may not have thought about accessibility features when focusing so much on good marketing and SEO, but now’s the time to take this into consideration in order to optimize your content.
Break Up Your Content with Headings
Especially for long website pages or informative blogs, breaking up your content will help significantly as a visual aid rather than one large bulk of text. Not only that but using descriptive and informative headings will help visually impaired users to better understand what each section of content is about when using a screen reader.
Include Descriptive Alt Text for Images
For website or content users who have difficulty seeing, you still want to make sure they can appreciate, understand or enjoy any images you’re providing — especially if these images are extremely relevant to the overall content.
Providing descriptive alt text for images means describing the purpose of the image and what can be seen in the image. This means that those using a screen reader can have the alt text read out to them and understand what is being shown.
Integrate Live Captioning and Transcription
This is especially important if you’re in the educational industry and you’re providing courses or lectures for students who may be hard of hearing. There are many benefits to using CART services that extend beyond accessibility, such as improving SEO using keywords. When it comes to accessibility, however, live captioning and a written transcript can be extremely helpful for those who need to interact with your content or learn from it.
Think Carefully About Typography and Font
These are two visual elements that are important to your overall branding. Your chosen font and typography should be recognizable to your brand and suit your overall business style. Nevertheless, thinking about your typography and font in terms of people who are visually impaired will help you to provide more accessible material.
Therefore, when choosing font style, size, and placement, try to make it as clear as possible, with simple, easy-to-read fonts at a comfortable size.
Structure All Your Content in an Easy Way
This is going to benefit every website visitor, not only those with accessibility requirements. The more simple and organized you can make your business website and online content, the easier it will be for everyone. So use clear signposting for your content, make sure all text and images are structured in a way that makes sense, and use relevant tab headings to clearly instruct and inform.
To Conclude
Focusing on accessibility isn’t about making extra efforts to accommodate those with difficulties; it’s simply about providing everything you need to, in a simple way that benefits everyone and should be a standard practice instead of extra focus.
