The answer is no, while having a website that is built on an accessibility-friendly platform such as Drupal and in a way that supports accessibility best practices is very important, it will not automatically make your content accessible. (If you are considering a website redesign check out this article about signs it is time for a website redesign). There are numerous other factors that can affect the accessibility level of your content, such as the way it is formatted and the terminology used. Below, we have outlined some initial steps to make your content more accessible.
Readability
Ensuring your content is written to be accessible to your audience is an important consideration when migrating content to a new website. There are several ways to improve the readability of your content.
- Removing jargon from your content will help a wider audience be able to understand the content. Jargon refers to words or expressions that are used primarily by only specific groups or professions. For example, a doctor may diagnose a patient with idiopathic hypersomnia. Another doctor would understand that the patient is excessively sleepy with no known cause, but the patient would likely require a further explanation to understand their diagnosis. Avoiding jargon whenever possible helps a wider audience understand your content.
- Readability can also be improved by simplifying the content. Avoiding long sentences and swapping long words for shorter synonyms are easy ways to make your content more readable.
- You should also periodically test your content to view how your content scores. There are various tools available such as Readable.
Headings
Headings help provide structure to long pieces of content and can be used by readers to quickly scan the text for the information they are looking for. However, they must be used properly for content to be accessible. Headings are used by assistive technologies such as screen readers to help users navigate content, and improper heading use can make this navigation confusing. Headings should be nested and used in order, to help your content be accessible. See the heading hierarchy example below:
- Heading One
- Heading Two
- Heading Three
- Heading Three
- Heading Two
- Heading Three
- Heading Two
Lists
Lists are a great way to make your content easily scannable, helping readers find the content they are looking for. It's important when using lists that they are properly formatted so that they may be identified by assistive technologies. Drupal's WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editor can format two different lists: bullets and numbered lists.
Links
Links should be given meaningful text to help readers determine the purpose of a link. Meaningful link text helps all readers, but is especially important for readers using assistive technology, as assistive technology will often provide readers with a list of links on a given page, removed from the context of the text that surrounds it. If a page has multiple links that say "Click Here", a reader using assistive technology won't be able to tell the difference between them all when given a list of all the links. Instead of writing "For more information on accessibility, click here" with "click here" as the link text, opt for something like "Read more about accessibility" with "about accessibility" as the link text.
Images
Adding images to your content comes with a couple of accessibility considerations.
- Images should not contain text. Screen readers and other assistive technologies are not able to access text on images, and so you should opt to recreate any text on images so that all readers may access it.
- Images should be given alt text, a short written description of an image, so that readers using assistive technologies are able to access the image. Read more about how to write alt text.
To learn more about content best practices and tips view these articles: