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.
On writing
Writing clearly can / Make content accessible / For all your users
(See Reading level guideline)
Some users can't see / Right, left, green, red, round or large / So add text labels
(See Sensory characteristics guideline)
Unusual words? / Define them or explain them / Or write without them
(See Unusual words guideline)
Try writing without / Using unusual words / Jargon, idioms
(See Unusual words guideline)
Expand or explain / All abbreviated words / So we understand
(See Abbreviations guideline)
Better to avoid / Shortened word forms, acronyms / Than to define them
(See Abbreviations guideline)
Tag foreign words so / Screen readers will pronounce them / As they should be heard
(See Language of parts guideline)
On structure
Are your headings like / Signposts showing what's ahead / Helping your users?
(See Headings and labels guideline)
Don't choose a heading / Tag because you like its size / Tags imply structure
(See Info and relationships guideline)
Mark up your headings / With heading tags that reflec / The content structure
(See Info and relationships guideline)
Tag table headers / So screen reader users don't / Get lost in data
(See Info and relationships guideline)
Don't indent text with / <blockquote>. It's for quotations / Not just for effect
(See Info and relationships guideline)
Break up your writing / Into small, bite-sized pieces / Labelled with headings
(See Section headings guideline)
On navigation
'Click here' isn't clear / And 'read more' doesn't mean much / When tabbing through links
'Click here' does not tell / Me or Google what we'll find / Following this link
(See Link purpose guideline)'C
Title web pages / Identify their content / Describe their purpose
(See Page titled guideline)
Page titles should act / Like signposts guiding people / To your web pages
(See Page titled guideline)
On non-text content and colour
Graphics need ALT text / So everyone can access / Your content online
(See Non-text content guideline)
Like perfect partners / An image and its ALT text / Complete the picture
(See Non-text content guideline)
ALT text should replace / The content of an image / Not just describe it
(See Non-text content guideline)
Don't use images / Just to display text / Use text styles instead
(See Images of text guideline)
Images of text / Mean I can't change the font style / ... So I can't read it
(See Images of text guideline)
Meaning can be lost / If your content relies on / Seeing the colours
(See Use of colour guideline)
If you add labels / Patterns, symbols to colour / Everyone can see
(See Use of colour guideline)
Use colours with high / Contrast so everyone can / Read your web content
(See Contrast guideline)
Light text on a light / Background is too hard to read / Increase the contrast
(See Contrast guideline)