Introduction to Accessible Digital Marketing
Accessibility should be an organization-wide undertaking, and should inform plans at the outset; this brief introduction offers some discussion around the big picture, and looks at how it can be incorporated into marketing.
Suggested Prerequisite
Before you read this, you might want to read:
The Big Picture
If you have been looking at some resources in this Learning Network, like “Introduction to Accessible Social Media Content”, “A Guide to Adding Image Descriptions to Your Social Media Posts”, and “Introduction to Website Accessibility”, then you have already picked up a tonne of tips on accessible digital marketing! One thing that those other resources don’t cover is “the big picture” – like how to approach accessible digital marketing in general!
The best way to begin is by prioritizing inclusive design. Inclusive design is design that considers all people and all abilities. When it comes to marketing, it is about creating content that is accessible to everyone.
The Importance of Accessible Digital Marketing
If digital content is not accessible, potential customers can quickly be lost. Barriers to accessibility—whether it is a video without subtitles, a website without a logical structure, or an image without alt-text—can put people off of a website (or document, or social media post). Make sure this doesn’t happen to you!
In Next Steps below, you’ll find resources that will help you build more accessible digital content. But before you dig into those, you may consider having conversations with your team, reaching out to users with lived experience to evaluate your current materials/content, and adopting inclusive design principles. Because when accessibility is a consideration from the start, and when it is prioritized by whole teams, it can become an organic part of every workflow.
Next Steps
1
Enhancing the Accessibility of a Website
Introduction to Website Accessibility
There is a lot of in-depth information available about how to make websites and digital content accessible. This resource discusses 8 recommendations which serve as a great start!
Subject(s): Strategic Planning, Website Accessibility
Resource Type(s): Foundations and Rationale, Standards and Best Practices
2
Making more Accessible Social Media
Introduction to Accessible Social Media Content
Ebooks are not the only digital content that benefit from accessibility! All digital content, from webpages to Facebook posts, can be inclusive and accessible. This resource provides general recommendations which apply to most of the most…
Subject(s): Digital Marketing
Resource Type(s): Checklist, Foundations and Rationale
3
Adding Alt-text to Images on Social Media
A Guide to Adding Image Descriptions to Your Social Media Posts
Most of the popular social media platforms allow users to add alt-text to their images. This resource provides step-by-step instructions for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Subject(s): Digital Marketing, Image Descriptions
Resource Type(s): Standards and Best Practices, Step-by-Step
External Links to More Information
Modern Marketing is Accessible Marketing
This ebook from Microsoft discusses ways to make marketing material accessible to people with disabilities. It includes 10 principles that can help to make content work well for people with different types of disabilities. Topics include using semantic structure, using fonts and text layout that is easy to read, alternatives for images and video, not relying on colour, , ensuring content can be accessed with a keyboard and making event spaces accessible. Features in Microsoft Office to help make documents accessible are outlined.
Accessibility in the Digital Age: A 2022 Guide
This guide discusses the importance of accessibility in digital marketing, provides tips to ensure digital properties are usable by all audiences, and explores accessibility in broader terms.
Content Source Acknowledgement