Accessibility matters. Small charities, UX, and product teams can make a real difference when their content works for everyone. However, many teams believe they lack the time or budget for proper implementation. A simple checklist can help. By following the steps in this post, you can improve your chances of delivering accessible content that aligns with WCAG and uses plain language principles, without needing a full-time accessibility expert.
1. Use clear structure and semantic markup
Start with the basics that people often overlook.
- Write meaningful headings (H1, H2, H3) that reflect your content’s structure.
- Use list tags for lists instead of line breaks for layout.
- Write link text that describes the destination, like “Read about our content design service” instead of “Click here.”
This approach makes it easier for people using assistive technologies to scan, understand, and navigate your content.
2. Write in plain language
Plain language benefits everyone, not just those with specific access needs.
- Choose everyday words over jargon or internal terms.
- Keep sentences short and focused on one idea.
- Break long paragraphs into shorter chunks for easier scanning.
- Use active voice to clarify who is doing what.
This reduces cognitive load, helping more people read, understand, and act on your content confidently.
3. Follow quick checks based on WCAG
You don’t need to know all the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to make improvements. Here are some quick checks inspired by core WCAG criteria.
- Ensure text has good colour contrast against the background.
- Provide meaningful alternative text for images that add information.
- Don’t rely on colour alone to convey important information.
- Make sure links, buttons, and forms are usable with a keyboard.
- Keep headings, lists, and landmarks in a logical order.
- Avoid media that plays automatically, or provide clear controls to pause or stop it.
If your website platform doesn’t enforce these by default, add them as manual checks in your team’s process.
Download the full accessibility checklist
For a simple tool your team can reuse, download my accessibility checklist as a PDF. It’s designed for small charities, UX, and product teams to use during planning, writing, and reviews.
Click to download “20 tips on writing for the web.pdf”
Summary and next steps
You don’t need a large team or big budget to improve accessibility. By focusing on clear structure, plain language, and a few WCAG-inspired checks, you’ll make your content more usable for everyone.
If you want help putting this into practice, I offer support with content strategy, content design, and accessibility reviews for small teams.
Read more about how I work on my content design services page or explore writing for accessibility.
