How can I play a role in improving accessibility in my day-to-day work? Part 4

?As many of you may know, 19 May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. So, in the lead-up to the day, I'll be posting tips and resources, to:

• get you thinking about accessibility
• thinking about what you can do in your own role and work to improve accessibility
• give you some easy starting points when looking to improve accessibility (web and otherwise).

?This post, will build on my previous posts (29 April, 3 May and 18 May 2022) with a focus on online content (intranet and internet), but still apply in any product we create. So, here are my next set of suggestions:

1. consider how a screen reader, may read online content and if it would make sense
2. don't rely on the red asterisks in forms to identify that a field is mandatory. A screen reader will not pick this up. You can use the asterisks and use red text stating "mandatory field"
3. use the headings and similar styles provided. This enables screen readers etc to emphasise content importance.

Considering how a screen reader interprets information

• Refer to Vision Australia's, How to make "Read more" links accessible | Vision Australia. Blindness and low vision services (visionaustralia.org) which discusses the impact of links such as "read more" has on screen reader users
• Refer to the Centre for Universal Design's article, Screen readers and web content - a CUDA post (universaldesignaustralia.net.au)
• Refer to WebAim's article, WebAIM: Designing for Screen Reader Compatibility (webaim.org).

Mandatory fields in forms and not relying on the red asterisk

• Refer to Understanding Success Criterion 3.3.2 | Understanding WCAG 2.0 (w3.org)
• Refer to Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1 | Understanding WCAG 2.0 (w3.org).

Using headings and similar styles

• Refer to Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.5 | Understanding WCAG 2.0 (w3.org)
• Refer to Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.6 | Understanding WCAG 2.0 (w3.org).

?I hope you're finding these messages helpful. The next and final message for this series will be released on (or as close to) Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

?So, finally, I watched a Cognitive Accessibility - Jamie Knight and Lion video (youtube.com) last week and thought it was very interesting and worth a watch. It's a 38 minute video, but well worth it.

#GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay #accessibility #inclusion