Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Today (18 May) is Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

Here are some easy-to-use tips for making your digital communication more accessible:

Use alt text and captions for your images

If you post an image on your social media or website, then it is good practice to use an alt text description with the image. This makes the image accessible to people using a screen reader. Without the alt text description, the screen reader will announce that there is an image, but the person will have no idea of the image content.

Similarly, you can also include an image caption. This is a text description of the image that you can post below the image. This is useful for people who have low vision and use screen magnification.

Fonts

You should always use a non-serif font. This is also known as a sans-serif font. Non-serif fonts are easier to read. Examples of a non-serif font are: Arial, Helvetica, Optima. There are lots more you can use.

One popular font that you may have come across is Times New Roman. However, that is an example of a serif font and should be avoided.

Also think about your font size. Digital font should be a minimum of 12 pt, while hard copy should be a 16 pt minimum to be designated as clear print’

Structure and layout

Use in-built headings to structure your document and create headings. Creating headings means that everyone can more easily navigate round your document.

Always left align your text and images.

We hope you found these useful. If you would like more information about accessibility, please take a look at our training section:

Visibility Scotland Training.