Many equate plain language with plain words. While plain words are important, plain language is much more than this.
Articles
Our articles cover a range of topics on writing for the web. Accessibility is a common focus because not a lot is written on the topic from a writer’s point of view.
Most recent articles
Plain language is not just plain words
WCAG 2.1 summary for web writers
This summary is for web content managers, editors and writers. It’s limited to level A and AA guidelines relevant to content production.
Are you swapping PDF for Word?
Have you been advised to replace PDF documents with Word, because Word is more accessible?
Accessible content for social media
Do you know how to make your social media posts accessible? In this article, we discuss ways to reduce accessibility barriers when writing posts, sharing links, and posting images and video.
Writing content for responsive design
If you’re writing for the web, you’re writing for responsive design. In this article, we offer some tips to get your content working well on a range of screen sizes and orientations.
Long descriptions for images – part 2
Long descriptions are text alternatives for complex or detailed images. In this article we look at some examples: charts and graphs, maps and plans, infographics, diagrams and technical drawings.
Long descriptions for images – part 1
In this article, we look at the role of long descriptions for images. Why you need them and how to implement them.
3 useful tools for web writers
Here are 3 free tools that are simple to use. They’ll help you write better content for your organisation’s website, intranet or blog.
3 diseases that infect web content
Want clean, healthy web content? Protect it from 3 common diseases.
Relying on PDF online? 6 reasons to stop
Many organisations are stuck on PDFs, while systems that help us manage information in flexible formats are not being used. We’re blissfully unaware of the cost of locking up content in PDFs.
Haiku for Global Accessibility Awareness Day
Global Accessibility Awareness Day aims to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility. To mark the occasion we created a set of haiku for web writers, based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
When is an image ‘purely decorative’?
Accessibility guidelines require us to let assistive technologies ignore ‘purely decorative’ images. Sounds simple enough, but sometimes it’s hard to decide when an image is purely decorative. In this article we argue that blank text alternatives are often best.
Clean up your web content with these handy household products
Would you believe that washing machines can help you clean up your content? They can. Not literally, of course. But metaphorically, they’re a great help.
Managing distributed publishing – 9 solutions
Some common problems arise when organisations use a distributed publishing model for their website or intranet. In this article, we outline 9 ways you can start managing these problems.
Managing distributed publishing – 8 challenges
Distributed publishing can pose significant challenges that affect the quality of your content. In this article, we look at eight of these challenges.