Accessibility offers a host of benefits to brands that are willing to go the extra mile to make things easier for their readers Why is accessible .
1. Accessible content is… well, accessible
The original goal of accessible content is to make reading and understanding easier for people who have a disability or identify as neurodivergent.
For example, a person who is blind might rely on a screen reader to access information, but listening to a text is a very different experience to reading it on screen. Information overload can happen if sentences are too long or complex, because the person will have to retain a lot of information in their brain, rather than seeing it on screen.
On the other hand, a person on the autistic spectrum might struggle to understand a text full of metaphors or hyperboles. In this case, a good solution is to minimise the use of figurative language, or to provide context to explain expressions that might be unclear.
Your audience Why is accessible will thank you
Impairments or situations that undermine our ability to read and process text can have many causes. Disability or neurodivergence are just the most obvious examples. But what about someone who phone number list speaks English as a second language? Or someone who is tired, sleep-deprived or is reading in a noisy environment, such as a factory floor? These readers will also enjoy accessible content.
3. Accessible content promotes information retention
According to cognitive load theory, our working memory has limited capacity and long or complex sentences can overload this capacity, making it difficult for us to retain information. Accessible content analyzing metrics and fine-tuning strategy best practices aim at reducing cognitive load, promoting effective communication and information retention.
Whether it’s for a brand awareness campaign or to explain a technical concept, you want your audience to understand and remember what they read.
Search engines love accessible content
Readability is an important factor for search engine optimisation (SEO). Clear and concise writing improves the user experience, so search engines tend to prioritise content that is easy for users to understand and interact with.
Moreover, microcopy – like ALT tags or button book your list text – give search engines valuable information about the content of your page, helping them understand whether it might be relevant to users’ queries.
5. Technical concepts are easier to convey
I see you, B2B brands. You have awesome products and ideas that could revolutionise your industry, but they can be so hard to explain to a non-technical audience.