Everyone deserves a great experience online. Making your content accessible isn’t just the right thing to do, it also makes your message clearer, your design stronger, and your audience broader. These best practices will help you take simple, practical steps toward more inclusive content.
Clear, well-formatted text helps everyone. It’s especially important for people with disabilities, like users with dyslexia, low vision, or cognitive challenges—who rely on simple language, clean fonts, and consistent spacing. Readable text also supports non-native speakers and anyone who’s short on time. When content is easier to read, it’s more accessible for all.
Example:
❌ Not Good
“Initiate the login protocol using your institutional credentials.”
✅ Good
“Log in with your college username and password.”
Aim for 1.5 line spacing for readability.
The office of Institutional Advancement has developed a style guide to help those writing and designing on Bellevue College’s behalf to promote consistent messaging and style.
Headings help everyone understand how your content is organized. They’re especially important for people using screen readers, who can navigate a page by jumping from one heading to another. Using headings correctly saves time, improves readability, and supports users with cognitive disabilities.
Think of headings like an outline:
Never jump levels (e.g., H1 → H4), and don’t skip levels.
Each page or document should have only one H1, usually reserved for the title. Additional headings should start from H2 downward.
Use headings to introduce:
If it helps users understand the flow, it probably needs a heading!
If your document is short or has only one main point, an H1 might be all you need. Don’t overuse headings just for decoration or spacing.
If you don’t like how a heading looks, still use the correct style (like H2 or H3), and adjust the visual formatting with your editor tools. Don’t downgrade headings just to get the visual you want.
Learn how to add headings and formatting to a document so assistive technology can infer meaning from the document structure and formatted characters using built-in styles.
Lists make information easier to scan and understand. When built with proper formatting, screen readers announce how many items are in the list and read them in order. Manually creating lists with dashes or asterisks removes that structure. Accessible lists improve clarity and comprehension for everyone.
Always use your platform’s built-in list formatting tools (bullets or numbers), not manual characters like hyphens or tabs. This ensures screen readers can detect and announce the list correctly.
If you need sub-points, use nested lists created with the formatting tool. This helps screen readers communicate the hierarchy of information.
In Microsoft Word discover how to use lists to organize and structure content so assistive technology can identify that information is contained in a group, and convey the relationship between each item within the list.
Descriptive links help everyone navigate more easily. Screen reader users often browse links out of context, so vague text like “click here” or “read more” isn’t helpful. Clear, well-formatted links show where they lead and also support users who print content or use keyboard navigation.
Your link text should clearly describe the destination, not say “click here.”
✅ Example: Learn more in the Accessibility in Canvas Guides
🚫 Avoid: Click here for the guide
If you’re displaying the full URL (for example, in a syllabus or printed handout), use a link shortener (like bit.ly or your campus-approved service) to keep it clean.
Redundant links occur when two or more adjacent links point to the same destination. While sometimes useful, they can clutter navigation for keyboard and screen reader users.
If your document will be printed, include the shortened URL in brackets after the descriptive link, like this: Visit the Canvas Help Site [bit.ly/canvas-help].
It’s okay to use full URLs in a reference section or appendix, especially in academic or research content. Be sure the section is labeled with a header.
Learn how to add links to a document so that each link has a unique and descriptive name to allow assistive technology users to determine the destination, function or purpose of a link.
Tables are useful for organizing data, but they need proper structure to be accessible. Screen readers depend on headers and a consistent layout to make sense of the information, without that, tables can become confusing or unreadable.
Use tables to present structured data, not for layout or formatting. Layout tables confuse screen readers and should be avoided.
Always use the formatting tools to designate headers. This helps screen readers identify how the data is organized.
If possible, add a scope attribute (for example, row or column) to headers. This tells assistive tech how to associate data cells with headers.
Merged cells can confuse screen readers. Keep table structures simple and consistent across rows and columns.
Avoid empty table cells—screen readers will announce nothing. If data is not available, enter “N/A” or another placeholder.
Include a short caption summarizing what the table is about. Canvas screen readers will read this to give users context.
Learn how to use built-in features to create layout tables and both simple and complex data tables so assistive technology can read the information in a meaningful manner.
When text and background colors don’t have enough contrast, it can be tough to read, especially for people with low vision or color blindness. Since some users can’t see certain colors, it’s important not to rely on color alone. Strong contrast makes your content clearer for everyone, in any setting.
Tools like WebAIM’s or TPGi’s contrast checkers help you confirm your color combinations are accessible.
Ensure a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for regular text, and 3:1 for large text (18pt+ or 14pt bold). Use a contrast checker to verify. You do not have to calculate on your own.
Avoid using color as the only way to show meaning (for example, “Items in red are incorrect”). Use text labels, patterns, or icons.
Ensure charts, diagrams, and image overlays have enough contrast between colors, especially when labeling.
Low-contrast combos like light gray on white are hard to read. Always test your choices with real users or checkers.
In this resource, you will learn about the importance of color usage in accessibility, and you will learn the tools and techniques you can use to make the colors in your content and information and communication technology (ICT) accessible.
Images are great for explaining ideas, but not if some users can’t access them. Screen readers rely on alt text to describe what’s shown, so skipping it means people miss out. Clear visuals and good descriptions make content easier for everyone to understand
Describe the image based on its purpose in the context. What does the audience need to know from this image?
If the image doesn’t convey information (for example, borders, filler graphics), mark it as decorative so screen readers skip it.
Text embedded in images isn’t accessible to assistive technologies and can become unreadable when resized. If an image includes text, ALL text in the image must be provided via alt text or another accessible method.
For charts, graphs, or diagrams, include a full text description elsewhere on the page to explain the data or message.
When an image acts as a link, the alt text should describe both the image and its destination or purpose. Since linked images provide navigation, they can’t be decorative.
Only include images that support your message. Avoid excessive visuals that don’t add meaning. They can distract or overwhelm.
If icons or SmartArt carry meaning (for example, a warning or tip icon), provide alt text so the meaning is clear to screen reader users.
For graded assessments, write alt text that describes necessary details without revealing the answer.
The General Services Administration (GSA) offers a clear, step-by-step guide on writing meaningful alternative text for images. They cover why it matters for accessibility, how it supports screen-reader users, and what best practices to follow.
Multimedia brings content to life, but it’s not truly accessible without captions or descriptions. Adding transcripts and audio descriptions helps everyone follow along and even makes your videos easier to find and reuse.
All pre-recorded videos must have edited captions. Automated captions often include errors and must be corrected, and there are certain requirements in order to meet accessibility standards:
Use a microphone or headset for clear sound. Poor audio quality impacts comprehension for all users.
Enable real-time captioning for Zoom, Teams, or other live tools. Offer a transcript after the session if possible.
If important information is only shown visually (for example, a diagram), include audio description in the narration or separately.
Example: You’re showing a diagram of the water cycle in a video webinar.
❌ Not Good:
“As you can see in this diagram, everything flows in a cycle.”
(Audio-only users won’t know what the diagram shows because the visual content isn’t described.)
✅ Good:
“This diagram shows the water cycle with arrows connecting four main stages: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. The arrows show water moving from oceans to clouds, then falling as rain and collecting in lakes and rivers.”
(This gives all users access to the same information, regardless of whether they can see the visual.)
Avoid rapid flashing or strobing (more than three flashes per second) as this can cause seizures in some users.
Get a brief overview on how to develop high quality audio, video, and multimedia that is accessible to users who cannot see visual information, or hear information conveyed using sound.
Forms are how people sign up, share input, or finish key actions—but if they’re hard to use, some users can’t participate. Clear labels and keyboard-friendly design make forms smoother for everyone.
Each form field must have a clear label either visible or programmatically assigned so screen readers can announce it.
Test your form using just the Tab key to move through fields. Users must be able to navigate without a mouse.
Tools like Microsoft Forms, Qualtrics, and Gravity Forms have built-in accessibility checks. Use these rather than building from scratch when possible.
If your form uses CAPTCHA, ensure there’s an accessible version (for example, audio CAPTCHA or alternative questions).
Learn what makes forms accessible and exactly how to test a form for accessibility.