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Making content accessible

Ensure your content complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Introduction

About 1 in 5 people in the UK has a disability. This could affect their vision, hearing, mobility or cognitive abilities. 

If we don't consider their needs when creating web content, we risk excluding people from online services. This can lead to frustration, anger and even distress. 

Web accessibility is not about making adjustments for people's needs. It's about designing inclusively, for everyone, from the start.

Remember: accessible content is not only better for people with disabilities and impairments - it's simpler, quicker and easier to use for everybody. 

Our responsibilities 

Content on suffolk.gov.uk must comply with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

Editors and publishers are responsible for:

  • text content
  • images, video and audio content
  • PDFs and other documents
  • maps (for example Google Maps embedded in a page)

Admins (Digital Content Team) are responsible for:

  • interactive tools and transactions (such as forms or decision trees)
  • mobile responsiveness (how usable the website is on different devices)
  • navigation and search functionality
  • design (for example fonts and colour contrast)
  • pop-ups and other dynamic content (such as feedback forms)
  • HTML checks
  • overall compliance with accessibility regulations

Read the accessibility statement for suffolk.gov.uk to find out how accessible our website is, how to report issues and what to do if you can't access parts of it. 

How to make content accessible

Text content

  • Page titles should be descriptive and not duplicated
  • Headings should be descriptive and properly tagged
  • Link text should make sense in isolation (and not repeated for different link destinations)
  • Instructions should not rely on sensory abilities, such as vision
  • Tables should be simple, easy to use with a keyboard and have descriptions set using 'caption'
  • Acronyms and initialisms should be explained in full the first time you mention them
  • Technical information requiring a high reading age should have a plain English summary
  • Content should be written and formatted so it's easy to scan and understand - see 'Writing for suffolk.gov.uk'
  • Camel casing should be used to format things like email addresses, hashtags and short URLs

Images, video and audio content

  • Images should have alternative text (alt text) descriptions to explain what the image shows
  • Images should not contain text (except logos)
  • Video iFrame HTML embed code must include title=”” with a description of the content inside the quotation marks
  • Videos (prerecorded) should include closed captions (CC) describing any dialogue and sound effects
  • Videos (prerecorded) should include audio description (AD) for any visual information not explained in the main audio track
  • Videos (prerecorded) should be made available featuring British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation where appropriate
  • Videos (live) including CC, AD and BSL is best practice, but not always practical and not mandatory on suffolk.gov.uk
  • Audio content should have a transcript

PDFs and other documents

  • Titles should be descriptive and set in the file’s properties
  • Headings should be descriptive, set using Styles (not bold, underline or making the text bigger) and nested properly
  • Instructions should not rely on sensory abilities, such as vision
  • Link text should make sense in isolation (and not used for different link destinations)
  • Images (including charts, shapes and icons) should have meaningful alt text description, and not contain text (except logos)
  • Tables should have a description, and be simple enough that you can tab through them (but never used for page layout)
  • Videos should include closed captions (CC), plus added audio description (AD) where needed
  • Audio content should include access to a transcript
  • Bookmarks should be added to long documents
  • Slides in PowerPoint decks have their own specific accessibility requirements, such as unique titles and reading order
  • Spreadsheets in Excel have their own specific accessibility requirements, such as good sheet structure and setting column headings correctly
  • Check Accessibility should be used before saving and publishing to find accessibility issues, e.g. poor colour contrast
  • Documents should be made available in accessible alternative formats (such as easy read or large print) where appropriate

Maps

  • It's hard to make maps accessible (for example a Google Map embedded on a contact page)
  • If a map exists to provide directions, this information should be published in text format in addition to the map

Think 'SCULPT'

There's a lot of accessibility guidance to remember.

You can use the acronym SCULPT to focus on the basics:

Structure your headings

  • Set headings as H2, H3 or H4
  • Make sure headings are descriptive
  • Ensure headings are nested

Colour contrast

  • Ensure strong contrast between text and background
  • Modify text colour in PDFs using built-in Style features
  • If in doubt, stick to black text and white background

Use of images

  • Add descriptive alternative text (alt text) to images
  • Do not use images that contain text (unless it's a logo)​
  • Try to avoid including images of tables or graphs

Links

  • Link text should make sense on its own
  • Do not repeat the same link text on page
  • Avoid using generic link text like 'click here'

Plain English

  • Use simple, everyday language
  • Avoid jargon and explain acronyms and initialisms
  • Keep sentences and paragraphs short

Tables

  • Use simple tables that are easy to tab throug​h
  • Do not create tables with empty, split or merged cells
  • Avoid using tables to format the page layout