The Seven Core Skills of Digital Accessibility¶
With Christina Goodland and Karen Shapiro¶
Contributed by Gabriel Fink¶
Overview¶
Christina Goodland and Karen Shapiro presented the seven core skills of digital accessibility at the University of Minnesota's Accessibility Ambassadors Monthly Meeting in March 2020. The seven core skills help content creators make content that is accessible to a wider audience, and are transferable to all digital media creation tools. The skills involve using alternative text, contrast, headings, links, lists, tables, as well as video and audio to improve digital content for people with disabilities.
The first skill discussed was using alt text which describes image content. It is great for people with screen readers and visual impairments since alt text provides a succinct description of the image it is attached to.
The use of contrast, which is the difference in brightness between foreground and background, was the second skill. Clear contrast can be helpful for people with colorblindness and shows emphasis on text and images by having elements clearly defined by light and dark.
Third was the usage of headings, which help structure content. They are especially helpful for people with screen readers or learning disabilities. Headers structure content in a way that is easier to understand rather than getting bogged down in a wall of text.
Fourth was links which are how content is connected on the internet. They impact a wide range of people which is why it is important to be descriptive and concise with links. It is also important to only link important content and avoid repetitious links. For example, someone with a screen reader probably does not want to hear the same link over and over again on a page. They also want to know exactly where that link will take them, which is why quality and concise link descriptions are neccessary for accessible content.
The fifth core skill was using lists which organize items into a logical order. They help people that struggle with large blocks of text like people with screen readers, dyslexia, or attention disorders. Numbered lists should be used when order is important and bullets when it is not. Built-in list tools for content creation platforms help make better lists for screen readers since they do not add additional data that could interfere with the program's ability to read the list aloud.
Sixth was using tables which structure data into easily readable visuals. Like lists, tables also help people who struggle with large blocks of text and rely on concise design to provide context for data. For example, using hatched or crosshatched fill colors for graphical data can help people with colorblindness that may not be able to discern between different colors in a graph.
Finally, using audio and video was the last skill which involved captions, transcripts, and descriptions for audio and video content. Captions help people with hearing disabilities and audio descriptions help people with vision impairments. By adding these, audio and video content can reach a wider audience and even help non-native speakers, since reading a language is often easier.
Using all of these skills together is how one can make quality accessible content that is more effective for everyone, not just people with disabilities.
## Key Take-Aways - These skills can be applied to the production of any digital media content. - Many of these skills involve making content readable ofr people with disabilities. - Concise and descriptive design are important for accessibility. - Accessible content helps people without any disabilities as well.
Reflection¶
I thought the ideas presented in The Seven Core Skills for Digital Accesibility were just good general tenets for information and visual design. Ensuring that videos have subtitles or that images have alt-text are just great ways to improve content anyway. Alt-text might make an image that is unclear easier to understand for everyone. Many of the skills involved readability of text, images, and graphics which is helpful for anyone and always improve content. Digital content that is bogged down with cluttered pages and repetitive information are difficult for anyone to use. I know I have spent my fair share of time running in circles with a bad UI. Digital content with quality visual design is often more satisfying or persuasive for the audience as well.
This presentation reminded me of an article I read last year in The Guardian. It talked about how many people without hearing impairments use subtitles because they are convenient and improve their viewing experience. Personally, I use subtitles to watch things frequently and I am often dissapointed when web-content does not include them. I cannot imagine what it feels like to have a disability and have a large portion of digital content be inaccessible. This presentation just reaffirmed many of the things we focus on in WRIT 4662W. Accessibility was a key concern in our Austin Healy website design since we knew that many people with visual impairments would use the site. Going forward, I will focus on the many other aspects of accessibility in my projects for this class and beyond. Accessibility should be a goal for anyone who creates digital media content, not just for technical communicators.