Accessible content performs better because more people can engage with it. Studies have shown reading on a screen is tiring for the eyes. People read 25% slower online than from a piece of paper. Articles and events need to be easy to scan and use plain language. No institutional jargon!
Think about how you read online. Do you skim first? A majority of people do. If key information is buried halfway down, it's effectively hidden.
Best Practices
- Improve Readability
- Alt Text for Images
- Properly Embedded Links
- Captions & Transcripts for Video
Improve Readability
There are things that you can do to ease the burden on the reader:
- Start with a strong headline. Avoid lengthy or vague titles. A good headline/title says what it's about, promises a benefit, and creates curiosity.
- Use the inverted pyramid style and hook readers in the first sentence.
- Break content into bulleted lists when possible.
- Write for skimming. Use short paragraphs, short sentences, and plain language. Ditch the thesaurus!
To keep the content easy to understand, always spell out all abbreviations on the first reference.
Good Example: To update your personal directory profile, please log into your Monarch Profile Manager (MPM) account. Once you've logged into MPM, you are able to request updates to your photo, phone number, address, and title.
Poor Example: Update your photo by logging into your MPM account.
Jargon used by your organization or industry is not universally known, so you should provide definitions or clarifications for these words and phrases.
| Jargon | What It Usually Means | Clearer Version |
|---|---|---|
| “We foster a dynamic learning environment.” | Students take classes here. | “Students learn through small classes and hands-on projects.” |
| “Committed to academic excellence.” | We want to sound prestigious. | “Our students work closely with experienced professors.” |
| “Holistic student-centered approach.” | We support students in multiple ways. | “Students can get tutoring, advising, and career help in one place.” |
| “Preparing leaders of tomorrow.” | We want graduates to succeed. | “Students gain leadership experience through internships and clubs.” |
| “Interdisciplinary synergies.” | Different departments work together. | “Engineering and business students often collaborate on projects.” |
Some especially overused college buzzwords:
- transformative
- innovative
- dynamic
- rigorous
- impactful
- holistic
- excellence
- synergy
- engagement
- empowerment
These words aren’t always wrong. They become jargon when they’re vague or unsupported by specifics.
Instead of: “Experiential learning opportunities”
Say: “Students complete internships with local companies during junior year.” This is more useful for readers to comprehend.
Our digital readers include people from many language backgrounds. Adding a pronunciation key for challenging terms can improve clarity. For example, quinoa (“KEEN-wah”).
Use bullet point when the order of items does not matter.
Accessibility tips:
- Use clear headings
- Add alt text to images
- Write descriptive links
Use numbered lists when the order does matter.
How to add alt text:
- Select the image
- Open image settings
- Enter a short description
- Save your changes
Screen reader users can encounter problems with a table as the page layout. It is much more valuable to use headings, lists, and links.
Best practices When You Must:
- Use a simple table structure and specify column header information.
- Avoid using nested tables or merged and split cells because the screen reader loses count and can’t provide helpful information about the table after that point.
- Avoid using blank cells in a table to prevent misleading people using screen readers to think there is no more information. Do not use tables for layout in pages because it causes confusion.
- Add alt text to tables to avoid failing accessibility checks.
Problematic Data Table Examples:
Example: Simple Table
Caption: This table provides the city, state, and zip codes of store locations.
| City | State | Zip Code |
|---|---|---|
| Lawton | Oklahoma | 73501 |
| Austin | Texas | 78756 |
| Minneapolis | Minnesota | 55432 |
Writing-focused tools (with readability help)
- Hemingway Editor
Highlights long, complex sentences and passive voice—great for simplifying articles. - Grammarly
Free version includes clarity suggestions and basic readability feedback.
Simple, no-signup readability checkers
- Readability Tool
Gives you multiple scores (Flesch, SMOG, Gunning Fog, etc.) and explains what they mean. Great for beginners. - WordStats Readability Checker
Fast and privacy-friendly (runs in your browser). Good for quick checks while editing.
There are things that you can do to ease the burden on the reader:
- Start with a strong headline. Avoid lengthy or vague titles. A good headline/title says what it's about, promises a benefit, and creates curiosity.
- Use the inverted pyramid style and hook readers in the first sentence.
- Break content into bulleted lists when possible.
- Write for skimming. Use short paragraphs, short sentences, and plain language. Ditch the thesaurus!
To keep the content easy to understand, always spell out all abbreviations on the first reference.
Good Example: To update your personal directory profile, please log into your Monarch Profile Manager (MPM) account. Once you've logged into MPM, you are able to request updates to your photo, phone number, address, and title.
Poor Example: Update your photo by logging into your MPM account.
Jargon used by your organization or industry is not universally known, so you should provide definitions or clarifications for these words and phrases.
| Jargon | What It Usually Means | Clearer Version |
|---|---|---|
| “We foster a dynamic learning environment.” | Students take classes here. | “Students learn through small classes and hands-on projects.” |
| “Committed to academic excellence.” | We want to sound prestigious. | “Our students work closely with experienced professors.” |
| “Holistic student-centered approach.” | We support students in multiple ways. | “Students can get tutoring, advising, and career help in one place.” |
| “Preparing leaders of tomorrow.” | We want graduates to succeed. | “Students gain leadership experience through internships and clubs.” |
| “Interdisciplinary synergies.” | Different departments work together. | “Engineering and business students often collaborate on projects.” |
Some especially overused college buzzwords:
- transformative
- innovative
- dynamic
- rigorous
- impactful
- holistic
- excellence
- synergy
- engagement
- empowerment
These words aren’t always wrong. They become jargon when they’re vague or unsupported by specifics.
Instead of: “Experiential learning opportunities”
Say: “Students complete internships with local companies during junior year.” This is more useful for readers to comprehend.
Our digital readers include people from many language backgrounds. Adding a pronunciation key for challenging terms can improve clarity. For example, quinoa (“KEEN-wah”).
Use bullet point when the order of items does not matter.
Accessibility tips:
- Use clear headings
- Add alt text to images
- Write descriptive links
Use numbered lists when the order does matter.
How to add alt text:
- Select the image
- Open image settings
- Enter a short description
- Save your changes
Screen reader users can encounter problems with a table as the page layout. It is much more valuable to use headings, lists, and links.
Best practices When You Must:
- Use a simple table structure and specify column header information.
- Avoid using nested tables or merged and split cells because the screen reader loses count and can’t provide helpful information about the table after that point.
- Avoid using blank cells in a table to prevent misleading people using screen readers to think there is no more information. Do not use tables for layout in pages because it causes confusion.
- Add alt text to tables to avoid failing accessibility checks.
Problematic Data Table Examples:
Example: Simple Table
Caption: This table provides the city, state, and zip codes of store locations.
| City | State | Zip Code |
|---|---|---|
| Lawton | Oklahoma | 73501 |
| Austin | Texas | 78756 |
| Minneapolis | Minnesota | 55432 |
Writing-focused tools (with readability help)
- Hemingway Editor
Highlights long, complex sentences and passive voice—great for simplifying articles. - Grammarly
Free version includes clarity suggestions and basic readability feedback.
Simple, no-signup readability checkers
- Readability Tool
Gives you multiple scores (Flesch, SMOG, Gunning Fog, etc.) and explains what they mean. Great for beginners. - WordStats Readability Checker
Fast and privacy-friendly (runs in your browser). Good for quick checks while editing.
What is Alt Text?
Alt text describes the content and purpose of an image for people who use screen readers. It serves as a written replacement for the image, helping users of assistive technology understand what the image shows and why it matters.
Best Practices for Writing Alt Text:
- Every image in your posts should have alt text. Why? It supports more inclusive engagement and helps reach a wider audience.
- Understand your image's purpose. Consider how the image adds meaning to your message then put that into words.
- Describe who is doing what and where. Keep your wording clear and informative, and avoid phrases like “image of” or “picture of,” since screen readers already identify images automatically.
- Keep it short and sweet. Long alt text creates a poor experience for those using screen readers.
Alt Text Examples
Take a look at the image on the left and try writing alt text for it. Then click the tabs below to see how your description compares.
- “image”
- “person at desk”
- “student working”
- “computer setup”
- Person using a desktop computer in an office.
- Student focused on dual screen desktops at a desk.
- Person working at a computer with multiple monitors displaying code.
Links & Buttons
Avoid non-informative link or button phrases such as:
- click here
- here
- more
- read more
- info
Provide clear, accurate information about the destination.
- Be understandable without context.
- Stand out from the surrounding text.
- Include another attribute in addition to color, like underline or bold.
Example for embedding links:
Use this: To update your personal directory profile, please log into your Monarch Profile Manager (MPM) account.
Instead of: Click here to update your directory profile.
Example for a linked button about an application users need to fill out:
Use this: Download Application Instead of: Learn More
No hanging links, a screen reader will read the entire URL.
The human readable link Constructing Accessible Web Sites is more user-friendly than the link to purchase the book by the same title on Amazon.com, which consists of a 108-character link full of numbers, slashes, and text that is not very human-readable. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590591488/qid=1116957951/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-5755258-8204633)
Avoid non-informative link or button phrases such as:
- click here
- here
- more
- read more
- info
Provide clear, accurate information about the destination.
- Be understandable without context.
- Stand out from the surrounding text.
- Include another attribute in addition to color, like underline or bold.
Example for embedding links:
Use this: To update your personal directory profile, please log into your Monarch Profile Manager (MPM) account.
Instead of: Click here to update your directory profile.
Example for a linked button about an application users need to fill out:
Use this: Download Application Instead of: Learn More
No hanging links, a screen reader will read the entire URL.
The human readable link Constructing Accessible Web Sites is more user-friendly than the link to purchase the book by the same title on Amazon.com, which consists of a 108-character link full of numbers, slashes, and text that is not very human-readable. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590591488/qid=1116957951/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-5755258-8204633)
Captions & Transcripts
Any video uploaded to odu.edu must have captions and a transcript provided. Captions are not just an accessibility tool for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. They’re widely used by hearing audiences as well for things like watching videos in noisy places, on mute, or to improve comprehension and focus.
To add captions to YouTube videos, go to YouTube Studio, select "Subtitles" from the left menu, and choose your video. Click "Add Language" and select "Add" under Subtitles to upload a file, auto-sync a transcript, or type manually. You can also edit automatically generated captions by selecting "Duplicate and Edit" for better accuracy.
To add captions to Panopto, hover over your video, click Edit, navigate to the Captions tab on the left, and choose Import automatic captions for AI-generated text, or Upload or request captions for custom files. Automatic captions can be edited by clicking on the text, and you must select Apply