Accessible content

Design with screen readers in mind

A screen reader allows people who are blind or visually impaired to use our digital products. Screen readers can read out the words on the screen and navigate content in multiple ways.

While sighted users can take in many visual cues when scanning a page, screen readers can only tell people one piece of information at a time. So when designing content, think about how it would be read aloud by a screen reader.

All of the content needed to complete an action should be clearly labelled for screen reader users.

Don't make things sound easy

It's important that we don't assume things will be easy for people, as this won't be the case for everyone.

So avoid words like "easy", "quick" or "simple" in content. Instead try to be specific about how an action is completed or the benefits of completing the action.

We should also avoid words like "just", "simply" or "only". We use these words a lot when we're trying to minimise the effort or impact of our content and make things sound easy.

So we might say "just send us an email" in our content. But for a variety of reasons, sending an email is not something that a lot of people can 'just' do.

When setting expectations in content, avoid saying how long something should take to complete, as again this won't be the same for everyone.

Use inclusive language

Using inclusive language means choosing words that are respectful and considerate. So always use gender neutral terms over gendered ones.

You should avoid referencing gender, age, disability, ethnicity or religion unless it's absolutely relevant to the content you're producing.

If you do need to talk about any of these things, it's important to remember that people don't always agree on what are the most inclusive terms and they can change over time.