The tech-writer’s journal #7— Creating accessible documentation
In this blog, we discuss the things you need to consider to make your documentation accessible to all your readers.
What is accessible documentation?
An accessible document is a document created to be as easily readable by readers with special needs. Often, making a document accessible is the most overlooked aspect of the process of documentation. It is either skipped or considered in the final stages, just before publishing the document, while it must be one of the preliminary aspects.
What can you do to make your document more accessible?
a. Knowing your audience
For any document to be clear and precise, the technical writer must be clear on the following grounds:
- The technical concept that needs to be covered
- The end-users of the document
Only by imagining ourselves in the reader’s shoes can we create appropriate, precise, and organized content. As technical writers, you need to know the following about your audience before you start drafting a technical document:
a. The level of expertise of the reader: Helps in deciding the depth of explanation.
b. The mindset of the reader when they reach out to your document: Helps in setting the tone and voice of your document.
c. The device in which the reader accesses your document
You can achieve these by creating audience personas. By doing so, you have a clear view of what kind of audience you are catering to and what adjustments you need to make to your document accordingly. In this step, it is important to consider making your document accessible to all kinds of readers. As mentioned before, making your documents accessible is one of the preliminary aspects of drafting a document.
b. Catering to different types of audience
Here are a few quick tips and tricks that you can follow to make your document more accessible.
(i) Use alternative texts and closed captions
- Always add alternative text to images, charts, tables, shapes, and embedded objects, and closed captions to audio and video files in your document.
- Don’t use flickering or flashing elements. They can cause anything from motion sickness to a seizure.
- Use SVG instead of PNG if available. SVGs stay sharp when you zoom in on the image.
(ii) Use meaningful hyperlinks
Do not use words like here, above, below, left, right, high and low while referring to hyperlinks. Instead, refer to the item directly such as “To know more refer to our API guide.”
(iii) Use appropriate color ratios in your document
(iv) Use differentiators other than colors in the charts and graphs
Often we primarily depend on colors to differentiate one more parameter in a graph. Instead, we can use both color and patterns.
(v) Avoid using watermarks on your images
Screen readers often skip the watermarks in images. Thus, they are often missed.
(vi) Use accessibility tools to check the accessibility of your document.
You can also use a screen reader to test your documentation. Read What Are Some of the Best Web Accessibility Testing Tools to Evaluate Your Website With? to know more.
(vii) Add accessibility disclaimer to your document
An accessibility disclaimer tells readers who and where to call for assistance with the document or presentation should they have difficulty reading or understanding it. Read How to write an accessibility statement? to know more.
(viii) Ensure that your readers can reach all parts of your document with the keyboard alone
(ix) When your document has forms:
a. Add labels to every field, outside the input box.
b. Add clear and concise error messages that are displayed above the input field.
Refer to the Google accessibility guide for more details.
