Overview

Accessible Content

Writing for accessibility helps us reach more users, and simplify the experience for existing customers.

Content is more than just words. Any visual or auditory element of Driveway conveys information that all users benefit from being able to access, understand, and put to use.

Inclusivity

Writing Plainly

P.O.U.R.

While no two people experience disability the same way, no two barriers to accessibility are presented the same either. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines group these barriers into principles known as P.O.U.R.—an acronym for four high-level principles that describe functional accessibility.

P.O.U.R. is the overarching structure of WCAG, where each requirement falls within one of these four pillars. While understanding each specific requirement can provide clarity in how to approach a specific accessibility problem, practicing the principle value of P.O.U.R. is a great place to start in understanding where these problem barriers begin, and what a solution may be.

Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to all users. Web content that's primarily perceived visually should also have auditory or physical cues such as a video that has audio descriptions provided.
Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable to all users. For web content, that may mean a user interface is primarily navigated with a cursor, but content is also navigable by a keyboard alone.
Understandable: Information and the operation of user interfaces must be understandable to all users. For web content, that may mean that instructions or labels are included when that content requires user input.
Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of devices and assistive technologies, so that as technology advances, users can access content reliably. For web content, this means that standard HTML controls are met and content is implemented in a consistent markup language.

Often the topic of web accessibility leads to thoughts of contrast ratios or engineering work. However, there's much content design can do to increase usability for all our visitors, no matter their needs. (See Ability Diversity for more information on types of disabilities and their impact.)

As content designers, we can ensure our site visitors have equal access to our information, products, and services by:

Structuring pages with clear hierarchy, both visually and semantically
Writing plainly and at an elementary school reading level
Providing context to images, videos, and other page elements either semantically or using Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) labels

UI Considerations

Calls to Action

Write brief but meaningful link text and button labels, using the title or a description of a page rather than a generic phrase like “click here.” CTAs should always map to the action being taken.

Write clear link text that indicates what will happen when the user follow the link.

Do not rely on surrounding context alone to convey link meaning or use images/icons alone without link titles, alt tags, or ARIA labels to clarify the link purpose.

Images and Alt Text

Alternative (Alt) Text provides context for those using assistive devices including screen readers. All non-decorative images should include alt text.

Describe the image in fewer than 125 characters for best results in screen reader software.
Be specific, but focus on the most relevant details.
Skip words like "an image of" or "a photo of"
Focus on the WHY rather than the WHAT

Include relevant context of images.

Do not describe non-relevant details of the image in context to the page.