Maria Bryan

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Digital Accessibility for Nonprofits 101

Maria Bryan

So, how accessible is your digital presence? I have a lot of work to do! In pursuit of digital accessibility for my marketing and communications, I wanted to share as much information as I could gather on the matter.

Why digital accessibility matters

According to the CDC, one in 4 people has some form of disability (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).  Digital accessibility is a means to help those with disabilities have equal access to resources and perform the same time of activities on the computer or online as anyone else. 

Nonprofits can amplify their messaging by demonstrating a commitment to ensuring their websites, email content, social media channels, or any form of online interaction are easily accessible to everyone, whether a potential donor, a board member, a volunteer, or a beneficiary. 

Digital accessibility is becoming more and more important as organizations worldwide understand the need to develop DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) programs. Digital accessibility as part of your DEI standards gives your nonprofit a lot more credibility, helps drive innovation that comes from diversity, extends your reaches, and minimizes potential exposure to complaints of discrimination.

What it takes to be accessible in 2021 

Creating digitally accessible marketing platforms doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it looks. You don’t need high-end developer skills to set up a functionally accessible platform in 2021. 

You should be looking over three areas with a fine-toothed comb for digital accessibility - your website or website, email marketing, and social media channels.

Website Accessibility Checklist

  • Use a good CMS (Content Management System) to start with – When you use a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, you may find that the process of setting up website accessibility can be a lot smoother. Other CMSs in the market can work too with a little bit more work. Weebly, on the other hand, isn’t that accessibility-friendly.

  • Use contrasting colors between the text and the background – The contrast in colors between the text and the background should be strong enough to make the experience of reading easy and effortless for the end-user. But do not rely excessively on color for navigation. Textual navigation is preferable to colors.

  • Provide textual content for every form of multimedia content you use – Supplement audio, video, image content with text alternatives – use descriptions, captions, and transcripts for every form of multimedia content you’re displaying on your website. 

  • Provide text alternatives for image-based documents such as PDFs - If you need to use PDFs, also provide options in HTML or RTF formats.

Email Marketing Accessibility Checklist

  • Provide textual alternatives – Remember to provide text alternatives for images, video, and audio content with captions and transcriptions as mentioned earlier on.

  • Fonts and sizing – Stick to fonts with easily distinguishable lettering such as Arial and Tahoma. A font size that’s a minimum of 14 or 16 for mobile devices is ideal for accessibility. 

  • Use meaningful text links – Instead of using ‘click here’ or ‘read more’ use more descriptive link texts. For example, ‘click here to download our 50 best email practices’. 

  • Use high-contrast colors – Color should not be overplayed and should certainly not take the place of textual navigation markers. At the same time, strong contrasts between the text and the background will make it easier for readers to understand and make sense of the text. If in doubt, stick to a basic black and white.

Social Media Accessibility Checklist

  • Add descriptions to photos and GIFS – Add concise but vivid descriptions (also called alt text) to your images so that these can be read and interpreted by assistive technologies. Make them as detailed as possible without sacrificing simplicity. 

  • Add captions to videos – Add captions to videos. Provide transcriptions at the bottom of the videos. 

  • CamelCase Hashtags- When publishing hashtags that have multiple words, use initial capitalization or CamelCase. This makes the hashtag easier to read and understand through synthesized voices.

  • Limit Emojis - Emojis displayed on a screen will be described by a screen reader. Be sure to uses spaces between emojis and copy, and Consider using them sparingly.

  • Identify best practices on different social media channels - Test each of your different social media platforms for accessibility features as they vary from one platform to the other. For instance, YouTube’s captions may be inaccurate, and you’re better off uploading your own transcriptions. Instagram doesn’t give you the ability to add alt texts, so add detailed captions instead.

How to maintain digital accessibility

Starting with a game plan makes it easier to maintain your digital accessibility over the long term. Here are some things to consider: 

  • Develop a policy - Creating a policy for your organization provides a framework to work with for your business, the people who work for you, as well as the clients who are at the receiving end of what you do. 

  • Do an annual audit - Conduct an audit once a year to see how you’re doing with your digital accessibility. Ideally, hire a consultant with the expertise to identify loopholes and fix potential problem areas.

  • Get your team’s buy-in - Update your team and ensure training wherever needed so they know what the expectations are. 

  • Provide adequate support for accessibility concerns - Have some form of accessibility support, whether it’s a phone number, email address, or a feedback form where you can collect feedback and take corrective steps. List the contact information in a visible location on your website.

More Resources on Digital Accessibility

Here are some more resources to supplement your learning on digital accessibility: