We need more research

I’ve been reading, researching and responding to accessibility related posts on Facebook. Interestingly one was asking about research papers related specifically to the creation of accessible PDFs. I answered with some useful papers, but that research gap really is still there. Where is it?

We need more research in this area, we need to start looking at the wider document accessibility issue and not just website accessibility. I also don’t mean documents that go on websites, I mean the ‘everyday‘ documents such as those that get emailed to people, like reports, invoices, presentations, policies, bookings or shared drives.

Our world is digital, but when will basic skills for digital inclusion catch up? We need curriculum and courses to change and for digital accessibility awareness to be included. The basics of accessibility should be by design, it should be everyday knowledge, there’s no excuse, the basics are simple. So simple in fact that you don’t actually need to be confident in IT to apply them.

Let me show you an example from SCULPT. L is for links and to make them work best for everyone you need to describe where they are going. Take a read and watch the 2 minute video about links on this page https://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/SculptLinks

Simple adaptations in practice like describing links properly can really make such a difference. It also helps skim through documents and locate links easily without having to reread whole sections of text to work out which ‘click here’ link you need.

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