Digital accessibility: Strategy, content and delivery

1. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY,
STRATEGY & CONTENT
DELIVERY
Léonie Watson
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

2. OVERVIEW
● Importance
● Benefits
● Strategy
● Content delivery
● Technical communication
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

3. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY:
IMPORTANCE
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

4. IMPROVES COMMUNICATION
● Information about your
products and services will
reach millions more people
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

5. MINIMIZES LEGAL RISK
● Meet your obligations under UK,
European and international
legislation
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

6. BRAND REPUTATION
● Digital accessibility positively
promotes your brand
reputation
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

7. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY:
BENEFITS
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

8. YOU BENEFIT
● Communicate more effectively
with many more people
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

9. WE BENEFIT
● People with disabilities, or
with a temporary loss of
ability
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

10. EVERYONE BENEFITS
● Everyone is a niche audience,
with multiple platforms,
devices and assistive
technologies
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

11. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY:
STRATEGY
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

12. POLICY & GOVERNANCE
● Define your digital accessibility
goals and a timetable for
achieving them
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

13. DOMAIN CHAMPIONS
● People with experience and
knowledge of digital
accessibility
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

14. EVERYONE'S
RESPONSIBILITY
● Professional pride,
professional development, and
quality metrics
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

15. GUIDELINES & RESOURCES
● Training, guidelines,
frameworks and libraries
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

16. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY:
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

17. WATERFALL PROJECTS
● Include accessibility
requirements in your brief
● Build in key stage accessibility
checks throughout the project
● Test at key stages with
disabled people from your
target audience
● Make "go live" dependent on
accessibility requirement sign@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

18. AGILE PROJECTS
● Make accessibility a
prerequisite of task
completion
● Build light accessibility checks
into every sprint
● Test after milestone sprints
with disabled people from
your target audience
● Iterate based on outcomes of
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

19. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY:
CONTENT DELIVERY
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

20. DELIVER CROSS-CHANNEL
● Communicate through different
channels, and over different
social networks
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

21. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
● 45 to 64 year olds are the
fastest growing social
networking demographic
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

22. BE RECOGNISABLE
● Make it easy to identify your
brand, and create trust
through brand recognition
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

23. MAKE IT EASY
● Communicate simply, clearly
and visibly
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

24. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY:
TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

25. HEADINGS
● Create a consistent structure
with a logical hierarchy
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

26. LISTS
● Group two or more related
items into lists
● Use bulleted, numbered and
definition lists
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

27. LANGUAGE
● Use plain and simple language,
and short sentences
● Explain subject matter words
and phrases
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

28. ABBREVIATIONS
● Write phrases in full with the
abbreviation or acronym in
parenthesis
● Use the abbreviation or
acronym freely after that
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

29. IMAGES
● Use images to help people
understand complex themes
● Describe images so everyone
can enjoy them
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

30. LINKS
● Use link text that can be
understood in isolation
● Use the name of the chapter,
page or website that the link
leads to
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

31. SUMMARY
● Understand that digital
accessibility is important
● Know that digital accessibility
benefits everybody
● Put in place a digital
accessibility strategy
● Make digital accessibility part
of every project
● Use digital accessibility to
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK

32. THANK YOU!
@LEONIEWATSON
HTTP://LJWATSON.CO.UK