All around me is this world that is inaccessible. It is a common practice in Ohio for people and advocacy groups to ignore the accessibility needs of their own community.
No one needs another meeting about this topic. It’s time to get it right and put out content that is accessible and inclusive.
When was the last time that your organization created a .txt file for someone who is blind to be able to participate and understand the content of your group? When was the last time you added an image description for the text content in your flyer when sending it out to others. Often people send out flyers on social media posts or constant contact emails to list servs without making sure that links are clickable or images have descriptions.
Most often people and organizations are sending out inaccessible content and when people speak up there is a lot of confusion around how to fix these issues or who is responsible to provide accessible information. Sometimes even there have been groups that want to argue and fight with individuals in the disability community about requests for accommodations or making their content accessible.
I have heard it all… Honestly I am tired of it. People have to stop saying it’s better to put out content to get content out then to take the time to make better content that is more accessible.. It is not okay to put content out just to put it there. When your organization puts out content there must be a pathway for someone to request an accommodation to view the content in an accessible way.
I understand accessibility might cost money. At the same time there are a lot of ways to improve accessibility without spending any money at all. It just takes additional time to be more accessible. People and organizations should not use the excuse of well this organization is volunteer run. That’s not an excuse to be inaccessible. Any government organization or non profit that holds a 501(c)3 except churches are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act to put out accessible content.
This blog offers some helpful resources to understand accessibility and ways you can make your content more accessible and inclusive to all.
The time is now Ohio to get it together because people want to be included and it is time people sit down and truly work to be more inclusive…
- Creating an Accessibility Statement and Accommodations Request
Every organization should have an accessibility statement. This tells people who to contact if something isn’t accessible and how to ask for accommodations when needed. It shows people you care about accessibility and are committed to putting out accessible content and to work on improving content. This should be visible and easy to find. For more information about creating accessibility statements here is a good resource to check out from the Web Accessibility Initiative.
2. Captions verses Image Descriptions
A caption is often a funny description about a picture. This isn’t the same as an image description. It also doesn’t tell people who might be blind or low vision or screen readers what is in the photo.
An image description simply describes all the content in the picture including a words, text, dates emails and links to websites. It also may describe shapes, colors, symbols or background logistics.
- An image description should always include text specifically including links and email addresses. This description should also be put into a social media post and under Alternative text or Alt Text.
- On facebook when you add a photo to a post, there are three dots that you hover or click on and drop down menu says “edit alt text” click on that l. Then it provides an opportunity for you to describe your picture. It is really important that any text in photo goes here.
- Some people don’t like it when there is a lot of extra words with a post. To clean up the clutter you may also add email addresses or websites in a comment under the post is made. It it’s important to not put a period after an email address even if it’s at the end of sentence.
3. Add Captions to your Meetings or Video Content
- If you use Zoom you can adjust settings to allow for captions to be turned on at zero cost to your organization.
- There are settings for social media when you go live or you post a video to your social media that ask you if you want to use captions this is something that can be done with little effort.
- Here is some great resources to understand Captions and Image Descriptions.
4. Learn how to create a .txt File
A lot of people make this common mistake with PDF files around accessibility. An organization has purchased an upgraded version of Adobe that allows you to make PDF files accessible for screen readers. The problem is that people who receive these documents may not have access to Adobe or are able to afford Adobe so the content still becomes inaccessible for them. We need organizations to create both PDF and .Txt files because not everyone who is blind has access to a screen reader or enhanced software to be able to see the text in document. It is also important when possible to include audio descriptions of images as well.
It is also important to make alternative options for accessibility when sharing meeting minutes, meeting content, feedback surveys and organization content. If you put out an FAQ document about an important disability policy up in a .PDF or Word File. it’s important to let people know that the document can be Available upon request in other formats.
- If anyone owns an apple phone or iPad or Mac you can easily create a .txt file by opening the “Note” app on apple and copying text into it and saving to your phone. It will automatically save as .txt file.
- If you use Microsoft Word you can also save documents as a .RTF file or .Doc file and also will help with some accessibility challenges.
5. Plain Language
Plain language is super important for people to understand your content. Information should be below a six grade reading level. It should be free of acronyms. For more information about plain language visit this website .
6. Acronyms
It it’s important to limit the use of Acronyms. It makes it more difficult for people to understand the information and content shared when people use these three or four letter abbreviations.. It is better to say a full name of an organization or policy being referenced when first mentioning an organization or policy. It is also helpful if you are in a virtual meeting to put both abbreviations and whole title of group in the chat.
Here’s a good read about how Acronyms hurt efforts towards inclusion.
7. Use of Calendar invites
When possible make content available on your website to save in both ICal for Apple and for Google Calendar. This will help people who need assistance to get content in there calendars about an event.
8. Hashtags
When creating hashtags capitalize the first letter of each word so it’s easier to be read for example #BudgetWithCare or #AdvocacyMatters
9. QR Codes and Accessibility
QR Codes are amazing for some people and for others it’s a love hate relationship. It is important that when using a QR code that flyers and advertising also contain a clickable link for people to access the content in another manner. Sometimes it’s difficult for people to line a phone up against a QR code to scan and sometimes it’s a challenge to figure out what QR code is for. While QR codes help many people and make things faster it’s important to understand the benefits and risks of using QR codes with in your group or organization.
Here’s some information on QR codes and accessibility for you to read more .
10. Use image descriptions in virtual meetings and in person
I recently attended a National Arts Conference where every speaker used a visual description of themselves. You don’t know who is in the room that might need to know what you look like or the content in your slides.
Every time I make a video about my art or use art in a presentation I work to describe what It looks like. It adds time to my presentation but it makes people aware of what my art is representing and includes everyone in conversation.
Please work on making sure when you introduce yourself you visually describe yourself when possible.
All around we need to be more inclusive and accessible and stop holding meetings on whether your organization can be accessible or not because simple ways you can improve your content in this blog and even just asking people are in your spaces how can you be more inclusive or accessible goes along way.
Here are some additional resources could help people understand accessibility.
Ohio Advocacy Heartbeat 