University of Tasmania, Australia

Web content is all content available on the web, including webpages, files, multimedia. All of these content types need to be accessible. The best approach to making accessible web content is to keep it simple, and to bear a few key principles in mind as you create your content.

1. How can you increase the accessiblity of your content as you make it?
2. How do you place the content in a webpage?
3. How do your users need to operate the content?

Media and multimedia

• Live audio only: Live audio is any sound captured from a real-world event and transmitted without delay to a webpage. There may be a short delay to allow some censoring, but not enough to allow for significant editing. Making live audio accessible will benefit people who have a hearing disability.
• Live audio with video: Sound and moving images captured from real-world events. Making live audio with video accessible benefits all users.
• Live video only: Moving sequence of pictures captured from a real-world event and transmitted with no more than a broadcast delay.
• Pre-recorded audio only: Sound files recorded prior to presentation. Audio can include synthetic sounds, recording of real-world sounds and voice. Making audio accessible benefits people with hearing difficulties.
• Pre-recorded audio with video (multimedia): Non-live audio with pictures, including animations.
• Pre-recorded video only: Any non-live recorded sequence of images, without sound, including animations and cartoons.

General content

• Forms: Forms are an important means of interacting with users, and can be made very accessible to people using different technologies such as screen readers and the keyboard.
• Headings: Headings can be used by assistive technology and search engines if they are correctly made in the background code. Since headings are usually have a different appearance to other text content, they can help people browse the page and understand the content, because it is visually divided into easy-to-see sections.
• Images: Someone who is visually impaired may be using a screen reader. A screen reader can identify images, so they should be placed in the page in a way that this technology can access. Images can add immense value to the content and to the users' understanding of the content. For people with low vision, combining colour with pattern can help them distinguish elements of an image.
• Images as links: A screen reader can identify images used as links, so they should be placed in the page in a way that this technology can access and have alt text that describes where the link is going.
• Links: Someone who is visually impaired may be using a screen reader. A screen reader can identify links. Someone with a mobility impairment may be using the keyboard to navigate around a webpage, for example, using the tab key. When they do this, the cursor should visit each link in turn. Each link can then be activated by pressing 'enter'.
• Lists: Lists are recognised by assistive technology and can help group content into easy to navigate sections.
• Optimising Images: Images are the quickest way to add bulk to a web page or any other document (Powerpoint, PDF etc) and slow it down.
• Tables: Tables are designed for data that benefits from a two-dimentional layout. Special attention is needed if using them for layout, although stylesheets are better for this.
• Writing for the Web: Writing accessible content will help people with cognitive difficulties and visually impaired people. It will also help people from a different language background.

Files

• PDF: Portable Document Format (PDF) is a global file format designed to provide content across different operating systems and printers. PDF can be made reasonably accessible, but should not be the sole source of important information.
• Office documents: Documents such as Microsoft WORD, spreadsheets and presentations can all be made accessible.