Accessibility
04 / Language, Structure & Media
Key question
Does it make sense?
Understanding relies on three things: a clear structure, accessible language, and media that engages more than one sense. This benefits people with cognitive impairments, language learners, deaf people, older adults, and anyone in a hurry.
Learning objective: You can structure content logically, write clear texts, and make media accessible with subtitles, transcripts, and descriptions.
What is understood the first time is what is clear.
4.1 / Structure
You also need to be able to hear structure.
Screen reader users jump from heading to heading, just as sighted people skim a page. For this to work, the structure must be correct in the code, not just visually:
01
Headings
One H1 per page, followed by H2 and H3 without skipping levels.
02
Labels
Every field has a visible, associated label.
03
Areas
Header, navigation, main content and footer are marked up.
Link text is also part of the structure: 'Learn more' tells you nothing when a screen reader reads out all the links on a page as a list. 'View the reading night programme' is much better.
Structure is navigation.
4.2 / Plain English
Short sentences, familiar words, active verbs.
Plain language helps everyone: short sentences with a single point, familiar words, verbs instead of nominalisations, and the active voice rather than the passive voice. Specialist terms are explained the first time they are used. Easy Read goes further and follows strict rules for people with learning difficulties.
The layout also helps: one point per paragraph, bullet points instead of complex sentences, the most important information first. Error messages explain what has happened and what you can do about it.
Write as if you were explaining it to someone.
4.3 / Media
No content, for one sense only.
Videos need subtitles that also identify sounds and changes of speaker. Anything that is only seen needs an audio description or a text description. Podcasts and audio files need a transcript.
Automatic subtitles are a good start, but they must be checked, especially for names and technical terms. Videos do not autoplay and can be paused. Animations respect the "Reduce motion" setting.
Subtitles help on the train just as much as they do with listening.
Exercise
A text for everyone
Task: Revise a page of your project to make it easier to understand.
STEP 1
Check the headings: do they form a table of contents on their own?
STEP 2
Replace vague link text with destinations, such as "Reading night registration".
STEP 3
Revise the longest paragraph in the Plain Language tool.
STEP 4
Add the missing alternative for a video or image.
Evaluation: What was lost in the simplification, and what became clearer?