Brickfield Enable: Text accessibility tips

Text, as the foundation of a webpage’s content, upon which everything else rests, needs to especially meet with accessibility best practises. It provides consistency, navigation, information and instructions for the overall user experience.

• Do ensure capitalization is minimised as this makes text harder to read. Only use where appropriate (eg acronyms, logos).
• Do ensure strong enough contrast between text and its background, and be wary of light shades, especially grey and yellow.
• Ensure that elements apart from colour alone are used, such as relevant icons / text, when conveying information.
• Use plain, concise language. Be consistent throughout the course with your language, terminology, and page structure.
• Use technical terms as appropriate but use them to clarify rather than obscure explanations.
• Create proper list elements using your text editor tools.
• Finish each item with a period or comma as appropriate.
• Provide precise and clear instructions for any tasks or activities.
• Use heading elements as provided by your text editor to differentiate titles from text and to show its hierarchy.
• Use proper semantic HTML tags to convey the text’s full meaning. Use <strong> instead of <b>, using <em> instead of <i>.
• Page titles should be accurate and descriptive.
• Be consistent when aligning text to the left, or to the right, if it applies, for instance with right-to-left languages, such as Arabic.

Remember! Text responds best to user preferences, such as browser settings, for instance to resize or recolour, so accessible text usage is crucial.