Some members of your audience may have special needs. It is important to write and design accessible content to meet these needs.
This is especially important for any content that is designed for the general public. The Australian Government now requires all online government content to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (see Accessibility guidelines for more information).
Special needs (and corresponding options) to consider during content development include:
- visual impairments (eg limited eyesight, tunnel vision, colourblindness); consider
- enlarging the text
- ensuring that colour graphs have sufficient contrast between colours
- following best practice for laying out tables (eg no empty cells)
- ensuring that text can be read by a screen reader
- including alt text labels for images, and audio descriptions for movies and animated material
- aural impairments (eg severe deafness, difficulty with hearing in certain contexts); consider
- using visual signs for spoken cues
- captioning voice-overs and dialogue in documentaries and movies
- cognitive impairments (eg slow processing of visual or written material, low literacy); consider
- making content as simple as possible
- adjusting the speed of visual signals and computer actions
- limited dexterity of hands or fine motor control (eg inability to respond quickly enough to standard computer prompts); consider
- increasing the size of icons and radio buttons
- adjusting the speed of visual signals and computer actions.
