Accessibility for Marketing and Communications

Want to dive deeper into the world of accessibility as a designer or communications/marketing professional? Go beyond the basics and learn the relevant requirements as set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how they apply to digital design and communications and marketing.  

In this workshop, discover the specific requirements from WCAG that are relevant to design and how and when these can be incorporated into your work. This training includes practical and hands-on activities, where we will put these concepts into practice. 

Training Outcomes

Attendees will:

• Gain an in-depth awareness and understanding of the accessibility guidelines as it relates to marketing, communication and design
• Have hands-on experience with creating and remediating digital content for accessibility
• Feel confident in applying accessibility principles into day-to-day marketing and communications work
• Understand the ways in which people with disability access digital content
• Understand the regulations and guidelines that exist relating to digital accessibility

Sessions Overview

This training is designed to be delivered in three two-hour sessions.

Session 1 – The Foundations

This session is an overview of the fundamentals of digital accessibility, why it matters for those in marketing and communications roles.

Topics include:

• What is Digital Accessibility
  • Myths and facts
  • Laws, regulations and principles
  • Assistive and adaptive technology
  • Why accessibility is important for marketing and communications
• WCAG Overview
  • Stats on common WCAG issues
  • Best practice/other considerations
  • What these considerations apply to (web, print, socials etc)

Session 2 – Deep Dive

This session will be a deep dive into the relevant WCAG success criteria. Each section will include:

1. Overview of the relevant WCAG criteria
2. Examples
3. Guidance on how to implement in relevant platforms (social media, Word, Acrobat, InDesign, Mailchimp, Canva etc)

Topics include:

• Text alternatives (1.1.1)
  • Images of text (1.4.5)
• Use of colour
  • Contrast (1.4.3 / 1.4.6) / Enhanced
  • Non-text contrast (1.4.11)
  • Colour alone (1.4.1)
• Captions, audio descriptions and transcripts
• Link text (2.4.9)
• Use of Headings
  • Section headings (2.4.10)
  • Descriptive headings (2.4.6)
  • Correct hierarchy (1.3.1)
• Semantic structure
  • Lists
  • Tables
• Language and content
  • Unusual words (3.1.3)
  • Abbreviations (3.1.4)
  • Reading level (3.1.5)
  • Pronunciation (3.1.6)
• Outside of WCAG
  • Typography
  • Easy English 

Session 3 – Accessibility in Practice

This session will be a practical workshop, providing attendees with the opportunity to work on a piece of communication with consideration of these principles. Attendees can bring in their own content or content can be provided for this session:

• Attendees will individually or in small groups undertake an analysis of their content, providing an overview of how it meets (or does not meet) the criteria we discussed
• Propose and implement remediation techniques to this content to ensure it is accessible, making these changes or providing a how-to guide on doing so

Topics include:

• Quick overview of WCAG criteria
• Example content critique – show before and after example of content
• Group activity
• Debrief
• Quiz