Five tenets of digital accessibility

How to integrate accessibility practices into your content creation that are rooted in empathy instead of checklists.

Published in

UX Collective

7 min readMar 4, 2022

An illustration of three web professionals developing a website. (Image courtesy of Pixabay user Elf-Moondance)

I am an accessibility designer (UX) who spent most of 2020 and 2021 training content editors and writers on how to make content accessible for a government website; the site had received an Office of Civil Rights complaint which lead to resolution, and thus my position was created. As is the experience for many institutions who receive an Office of Civil Rights complaint related to digital accessibility, the individuals I was tasked with training were unaware of their responsibilities as content editors, writers and document creators, and although they were each individually talented in their own specialty, they simply had not received any form of accessibility training over the course of their careers. As I developed and provided these trainings for over 300 individuals, I needed to think creatively and deeply about how to instill an accessibility mindset into my trainees.

Over the course of this work, I came to develop five accessibility tenets that I began to introduce at the start of the training. We would review the tenets after we had discussed responsibilities under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and other compliance requirements, but before discussing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1, Level AA. It was and continues to be my view that reviewing the tenets before understanding how to make them applicable sets a tone for content creation rooted in empathy instead of checklists.

The training itself was nearly three hours, and so I found that providing the tenets early helped create a foundation, context and structure which I could return to throughout as we spent time in each of the high-level accessibility topics. I provided four of these trainings a week, and so I thought deeply about these tenets and the training itself for most of my work week. I found that if someone had a technical question related to any topic, we could always return to the tenets to find a solution, especially given that there are sometimes many ways to achieve the success criteria of accessibility set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium via the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (level AA).

So, without further ado, I present my five tenets of digital accessibility.

Five Tenets of Digital Accessibility

Content should be perceivable with multiple senses
Accessibility equals usability
Content should be presented with pervasive style
Content should be written in plain language
All users should have agency

Content should be perceivable with multiple senses

This one is quite simple: If the information is presented in one sensory format (for example: visually), an alternative sensory format should be available (for example: audibly).

This tenet pairs nicely with a demonstration of a screen reader, a discussion surrounding assistive technology, and can be understood by thinking about physical, real-world examples such as:

the placement of Braille on building signs in addition to the visual signs
crosswalks that make a sound to indicate that traffic has been stopped, and thus it is safe to walk

This tenet helps with the following accessibility topics: Alt text, complicated images, closed captions/subtitles/transcripts, audio descriptions, podcast transcripts, scanned PDFs requiring the content written as text, and more.

Accessibility equals usability

The more accessible content is, the easier it is for everyone to use.

This tenet is really important when one views accessibility as a broad topic that includes not only users with disabilities, but also users with low bandwidth internet, of varying nationalities who speak varying languages, users who may not have a high reading level, and who are reviewing your content with varying degrees of digital literacy. Because this tenet takes a broader view of accessibility, it can be a little bit of a hard sell for editors who do not practice design thinking or who do not have much or any training in web/digital best practices.

Some examples of this tenet in practice include:

Providing information in writing as opposed to (or in addition to) text-in-image means that not only are we providing the information in an accessible manner for our screen reader users, but the information can also more readily be translated by users who do not share our language, the information can be viewed as intended on any device, can be copied and pasted readily into a personal calendar, word processing software or note taking app, and can be viewed by users with low-bandwidth internet.
Headings not only provide navigation for screen reader users, they also organize and segment information for sighted users, and particularly are useful for helping everyone scan for and find the information they are looking for quickly.

This tenet helps with the following accessibility topics: Complicated images, properly tagged content, color value/luminosity contrast ratios, responsive website requirements and scalability across devices, transcripts (especially for podcasts/audio), heading structure, font size/type/spacing, and more.

Content should be presented with pervasive style

Users expect content to be presented consistently across your products and content.

This tenet, in particular, benefits users with cognitive disabilities, but like all accessibility practices, also benefits every single user who comes across your content.

My favorite example: If a user can click icons that subsequently take them to other pages on your site, you should have a universal taxonomy for those icons. For example: If a “?” icon takes a user to a Get Help page in one instance, but takes them to a Frequently Asked Questions page in another, your content is not pervasive and could thus be frustrating or confusing for all of your users. (Note: the “?” icon should be accompanied by linked text describing which page the user will be taken to, as well as navigation instruction in the alt text.)

This tenet helps with the following accessibility topics: Color value/luminosity contrast ratios, properly tagged content, ensuring linked text provides context, heading structure, and font size/type/spacing, and more.

Content should be written in plain language

Everyone can read and understand what is written.

Generally, this tenet asks that we write for users who have eight years of English reading experience — taken literally from the perspective of someone who lives in the United States, this would mean writing for a sixth grade reading level.

As noted above, I often think of accessibility as a very broad topic that creates a more equitable digital landscape for a large population of users. This tenet, in particular, benefits all users by asking content creators to write simply, directly, and without (or reduced use of) jargon or acronyms. Writing in plain language especially helps users who are using translators, users with cognitive and/or reading disabilities, who do not have a high level of reading, and casual users who are looking for simple instruction on processes.

According to the Plain Language Action and Information Network, plain language ensures that users can find what they need, understand what they find, and use what they find to meet their needs. It’s that simple.

This tenet especially helps with the following accessibility topics: Ensuring linked text provides context, properly tagged content, abbreviations and acronyms are defined, that content is understandable, and more.

All users should have agency

Users should be able to make choices. Anyone of any ability or disability can navigate content for their preferences and needs.

This is my favorite tenet because it encapsulates my values as an accessibility designer. It’s very simple, and provides a high level view of what the practice of designing and creating accessibly really means: The user has and experiences choice.