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Design Principles

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Getting started

Digital accessibility doesn’t have to be complicated! There are quick steps you can take to make content more accessible right away.

Remember:

  • It’s not possible to make universally accessible content.

  • Imperfection is OK.

  • By sticking to some basics, your content will be easier to adjust to make it accessible to anyone.

7 Principles of Accessibility, and How to Do It

Headings

Basic Principle

Headings ensure your content is arranged in a logical order. By properly formatting headings, people can use their screen reader to get an overall sense of the page content, and can skip to relevant passages as needed. Without headings, the only option is to read the page in a single block.

Questions to Ask

  •  Does my page have headings?
  •  Is there only one h1 per page?
  •  Can I easily scan the text of my heading levels?
  •  Do the heading levels skip unexpectedly?

Deep Dive

Note

Content below this point is still in development.

Alternative Text

Basic Principle

Examples

Deep Dive

Basic Principle

Examples

Deep Dive

Color Contrast

Basic Principle

Examples

Deep Dive

Lists

Basic Principle

Examples

Deep Dive

Tables

Basic Principle

Examples

Deep Dive

Video & Audio

Basic Principle

Examples

Deep Dive

Principle one

Principle two

Principle three

Visual language

Color

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Typography

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Sizing & spacing

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Icons & illustrations

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

✏ Writing

Cheat sheet

Word

Rule

Style, spelling, grammar

House rules

Capitalization

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Punctuation

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Formatting

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Abbreviation & acronyms

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Numbers & percentages

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Dates and times

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Lexicon

Word

Rule

👩‍💻 Build

Best practices

Accessibility

(tick) DO:

(error) DON'T:

Browser support

Browser

Version

Priority

Actions

<Element name (e.g., Button)>

Code Block

Name

Required

Type

Allowed value

Default values

Description

Status
colourBlue
titleYes
/
Status
colourRed
titleNo

e.g., Changes the visual styling of the Button

<Element name (e.g., Link)>

Code Block

Name

Required

Type

Allowed value

Default values

Description

Status
colourBlue
titleYes
/
Status
colourRed
titleNo

Forms

Code Block

Name

Required

Type

Allowed value

Default values

Description

Status
colourBlue
titleYes
/
Status
colourRed
titleNo

Feedback

Code Block

Name

Required

Type

Allowed value

Default values

Description

Status
colourBlue
titleYes
/
Status
colourRed
titleNo

Navigation

Code Block

Name

Required

Type

Allowed value

Default values

Description

Status
colourBlue
titleYes
/
Status
colourRed
titleNo

Accessibility

Code Block

Name

Required

Type

Allowed value

Default values

Description

Status
colourBlue
titleYes
/
Status
colourRed
titleNo