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Global Accessibility
Awareness Day
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Today, Thursday 18 May, is the 12th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion.
Accessibility isn't just about supporting people who identify as being disabled, it's about ensuring equal access for everyone, regardless of their abilities, age, location, or the technology they use.
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Did you know that one in five people have a long term illness, impairment or disability in the UK?
This equates to roughly 165,000 people in Devon, and it suggests that even within Devon County Council (DCC), many of our colleagues lives could be made easier with a little adjustment and consideration about how we create digital material.
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“Global Accessibility Awareness Day highlights the importance of making our digital information and services accessible. We are all responsible for this, whether we’re creating material to share with colleagues or for residents.
“Please remember that the people we help are often those who find digital services hardest to use. As they may not have a choice, it’s up to us to make sure everyone can access these services and benefit from them.”
Donna Manson, Chief Executive
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What do we mean by creating accessible material?
If you are writing, designing or sharing information from your computer or laptop then you are creating digital material. This can be in the form of:
- an email
- a document, report, presentation or spreadsheet
- information that needs to go on a website, intranet (SharePoint) and even internal management systems
- social media
- a video or sound recording
You should also consider accessibility when creating printed materials.
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Maria Price, Director of Legal and Democratic Services
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Key principles
Before you start creating your material, you should consider these key principles:
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Be kind, be inclusive - take the time to think about people around you - and your service users - and find out if they may struggle with the way you are sharing your information.
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Make a positive start - consider accessibility from the beginning, it's much easier than you think and won't be as much work as trying to retrofit it.
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Think about context - think about how people may need to access the information you are sharing. For example: on a phone or other mobile device, during a hybrid meeting or on a website.
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Ask if you are unsure - seek guidance on how best to share, either from the people you are sharing with or you could ask your question on the Accessibility Community Team channel.
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Hear from two of our colleagues about what accessibility means to them
"I work on a computer screen set to greyscale, therefore, I cannot see or understand colour-coded documents. It is also difficult to read text when written in colours with poor contrast to its background. Similarly, text written over multi-coloured or picture backgrounds is often illegible."
Carla, Integrated Adult Social Care Assessor
"My level of sight is classed as having light perception. This means I’m able to detect sunny days, but not able to see objects. I am a guide dog owner. I enjoy getting out for a run or walk especially when I can feel the warm sun on my skin.
"As more services become available online and technology continues to develop, I’m able to independently access many more services and information then previously. However, if the content we produce online doesn’t follow good accessibility guidelines I can be left feeling very frustrated and needing to reach out to others to support me.
"Microsoft 365 Office software now comes with a feature called 'check accessibility'. This tool is a great option for people wanting to produce content for as many consumers as possible. The more times you use the Accessibility Checker, the better you’ll become at producing accessible content. To find out more go to the Make your content accessible to everyone with the Accessibility Checker pages on Microsoft."
Darren Westlake, Service Improvement Officer for Scomis
Darren, with his guide dog Ruth.
The alt text for this image reads:
Darren, a white middle age man with dark hair, kneeling on a bridge looking at the camera. To his left sits Ruth a black Labrador Retriever guide dog. Behind them is a large lake and fields stretching into the distance.
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How to create accessible material
Whether writing an email, producing a Word document, creating a PowerPoint presentation or publishing a webpage, there are a few key pointers that will help you to make your material accessible to as many people as possible.
- Use headings and sub headings to give structure. This not only helps screen readers to navigate around your material, it’s easier for everyone to read.
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Any images used must have ‘alt’ (alternative) text added to them to describe what they are. This is usually one or two sentences. Charts, graphs or more complex images may need more detail. Take a look at these top tips - Everything you need to know to write effective alt text.
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Colours must have sufficient contrast against the background. For example, a lime green font on a white background is very difficult to read and would fail a contrast check. We have an approved DCC colour palette which lists colours already tested and approved, or you can use the WebAIM colour checker
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Hyperlinked text must be descriptive -linked text should be descriptive enough to make sense out of context and give a clear indication of where the link will take you. Watch a video about creating accessible links.
- Use an accessible font - simple (or sans serif) fonts such as Arial or Calibri are clear and easy to read.
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Write clearly -find advice about using plain English to help keep your content clear and concise.
This is not an exhaustive list. Please see our guide about how to create accessible material for more information.
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Microsoft 365 resources
Microsoft provides a number of useful resources that can help you learn more about digital accessibility, . If you do nothing else, we recommend you have a look at these when you have some time:
- The Accessibility fundamentals online learning course presents the core ideas and definitions needed to understand accessibility concepts.
- Learn how to use the Accessibility Checker when using Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint.
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 Watch the video linked above to see how easy it is to check your documents for accessibility.
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One-to one accessibility clinic
If you have a question about digital accessibility that is not covered in our guidance, book a 10 minute session using the button below with Tom Dixon, our Digital Communications Lead at DCC. He will attempt to answer your question, or point you in the right direction.
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Publishing documents on the web
You may be working on documents with a plan to eventually publish them on our website. If so, it's best to think about what that means before putting in lots of time on features that are then cut back out to make the content accessible!
PDFs are our most common challenge at DCC. There are many reasons, not just related to accessibility, why PDFs are a problem. In a nutshell, unless it is impossible to do so, content should be published in webpage format (also referred to as ‘HTML’).
If you are creating a document that you will want published on a website, we recommend contacting us early on. We may be able to offer some advice that will help you to avoid problems later!
To help you think about how to approach publishing a document online we have new guidance that provides tips of how to draft a document for publishing online.
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Commissioning digital services
As well as making sure what we create, share and publish ourselves is accessible, we also have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure what we buy or commission is also accessible.
This includes digital services, websites, marketing campaigns – or even a research brief that will produce a report. Try to think about how and where your work will be published.
Considerations
If you are buying or commissioning anything that has any form of a digital element to it, then you need to:
- make sure the end result is accessible
- specify clearly to the supplier what is required by way of accessibility
- think about how you will check what has been produced is actually accessible
- publish an accessibility statement if you are buying a service or website
Find out more about buying accessible services, content and products.
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More help
Tools and resources
There are some great posters created by GOV.UK that illustrate some of the considerations you should keep in mind when designing for people with different disabilities.
And finally...
Thank you for reading our GAAD special, which has been created by our digital communications team.
The digital communications team are specialists within the Communications team and are responsible for all elements of digital communications. They can provide advice and support on website development, digital platforms, user testing as well as digital accessibility.
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