Accessible writing makes your content easier for everyone to consume. MEDHOST content should be written with accessibility in mind.
Write Plainly
- Ensure that content is easy to understand and not too complicated.
- Use short sentences and around 20-25 words at most.
- Don't use complicated words if simple words can be used instead.
- Use contractions.
- Use a consistent and straightforward heading structure, helping the reader jump directly to specific content.
- Screen readers do not identify font styles, including the following:
- Underline
- Strikethrough
- Color
- Bold
- Italics
These should be used to provide visual breaks, not the singular way to indicate importance. When you want to give a strong visual cue, use an accessible alternative like an exclamation mark at the end of your sentence. Don't use font styles alone to indicate importance.
Images
- Use images and icons purposefully.
- Text the images. Alt text (alternative text) is a word or a short phrase that can be inserted as an attribute in an HTML document to tell website visitors the nature or contents of an image providing a clear description.
Links
- In general, links must be descriptive and describe what the user can expect to find when they click them. This is also crucial for screen readers. Avoid using generic phrases such as "click here" or "see more." It is better to describe the intended result like "Watch the Video" or "Read the Case Study."
- Web addresses or URLs should be made the text description of the page's contents.
Video
- Videos should be captioned if possible.
Rev. date 11/12/2021
