Writing Accessible Content

Table of Contents

Overview

Make text content readable and understandable to everyone.

Allow text content to be read by users and by assistive technology, and to ensure that information necessary for understanding it is available.

People with disabilities experience text in many different ways. For some the experience is visual; for some it is auditory; for some it is tactile; for still others it is both visual and auditory.

Some users experience great difficulty in recognizing written words yet understand extremely complex and sophisticated documents when the text is read aloud, or when key processes and ideas are illustrated visually or interpreted as sign language.

For some users, it is difficult to infer the meaning of a word or phrase from context, especially when the word or phrase is used in an unusual way or has been given a specialized meaning; for these users the ability to read and understand may depend on the availability of specific definitions or the expanded forms of acronyms or abbreviations.

Links

• Ensure that all links are informative, and meaningful when read out of context. Link text should be a meaningful representation of the link target. 

• Screen-reader users may be unable to easily access contextual information related to a link.  

• Single word links represent small targets for persons who have difficulty controlling a pointing device due to motor impairments. Placing long lists of text-based links close together in rows or columns increases the probability of a mouse error. 

• Avoid the use of single word links (“Here”, “More”, “Go”).   Links should be clear, descriptive and able to stand alone.  

• Avoid enclosing text links in brackets, braces, parentheses. 

• Avoid “Click Here”  

How Screen Readers Read Content

• Screen readers pause for:

  • periods

  • semi-colons

  • commas

  • question marks

  • exclamation points

  • paragraph endings

• Screen readers read letters out loud as you type them, but say “star” or “asterisk” for password fields.

• Screen readers announce the page title (the <title> element in the HTML markup) when first loading a web page.

• Screen readers will read the alternative text of images, if alt text is present. JAWS precedes the alternative text with the word “graphic.” If the image is a link, JAWS precedes the alternative text with “graphic link."

• Screen readers ignore images without alternative text and say nothing, but users can set their preferences to read the file name.

• If an image without alternative text is a link, screen readers will generally read the link destination (the href attribute in the HTML markup) or may read the image file name.

• Screen readers will bypass images that have been marked as decorative image.

• Screen readers announce headings and identify the heading level. NVDA and JAWS, for example, precede <h1> headings with “heading level 1.”

• Some screen readers announce the number of links on a page as soon as the page finishes loading in the browser.

• JAWS says “same page link” if the link destination is on the same page as the link itself and “visited link” for links that have been previously accessed.

• Screen readers in table navigation mode inform the user how many rows and columns are in a data table.

• Users can navigate in any direction from cell to cell in table navigation mode. If the table is marked up correctly, the screen reader will read the column and/or row heading as the user enters each new cell.

• Screen readers inform users when they have entered into a form. Users have the option to enter form navigation mode.

• Screen readers can be thrown off by homographs. For example, the word read can be pronounced “reed” or “red,” depending on the context: “I’m going to read the newspaper” vs. “I already read the newspaper.” A sentence such as “I read the newspaper every day” is ambiguous to all readers—humans and screen readers alike. The word content is another example: “I feel content” (meaning satisfied, with the emphasis on the second syllable [con-TENT]) vs. “sf.org has some really awesome content” (meaning the subject matter, with the emphasis on the first syllable [CON-tent]).

• Screen readers may or may not read out punctuation, depending on the user’s verbosity setting. Ensure that your intended meaning will be conveyed in either case. To appreciate the value of punctuation, consider these sentences:

  • Let’s eat, grandpa!

  • I’d like to thank my parents, the mayor, and the president.

  • He finds inspiration in cooking, his children, and his cat.

Reading Level

Provide vital information for the public at a 5th grade level.

In cases where technical or legal language is necessary, you must provide a summary at a 5th grade level.

Vital information is defined by the City's Language Access Ordinance. See Definitions section for more details.

Please see more detailed information on this in our Reading Level section.

WCAG Related Guidelines

3.1.5 Reading Level (Level AAA)