Accessibility is a term that’s gaining traction in the content-creator world. It’s a word that essentially means that all content online should be able to be appreciated and enjoyed by as wide a range of people as possible – and the upshot is that, if you achieve this, you’ll enjoy a larger number of viewers and potential customers. In this short article, we’ll guide you through what you can do to make your content more accessible to the world’s billions of internet users.
Impairments
When we think of accessibility in the real world – the offline world – we often think of ramps for those with mobility impairments, or braille for those with visual impairments. But what about the online world – how can we make the internet more accessible for those with impairments? It turns out it’s all a matter of imagination.
As you’ll be able to tell in this blog post, there are ways of marketing and creating content in a responsible manner that attempts to take account of the wonderful diversity we have on this planet. You can design your content to be cognizant of the hundreds of millions of people who do struggle to see or understand web content. But you’ll need experts who’ve dedicated their professional lives to honing this craft help you get there.
Sensitivity
Different people have different experiences. As such, it’s unlikely that someone who grew up on the Upper East Side is going to have the same reaction to a video that you’ve produced than an individual who grew up in Bangladesh. There are different cultural codes followed across the world, and different symbols that mean different things to different people. What may be hilarious in one country could be deeply offensive in another.
Again, developing this sensitivity on your own is difficult. Everyone makes mistakes through a simple lack of knowledge. But some mistakes can be costly, generate negative headlines and make your marketing material and brand look crass and insensitive. That’s why it’s always worth running your ideas through diverse teams and agencies to make sure no one will be offended by what you’re trying to work upon.
Message
What is the message of your content? If you’re producing marketing content, are you simply trying to have people buy your products, or is there a deeper message that you’re trying to convey? Something about aspirations and hope, or adventure and living life to the fullest? This is an important question, because the way that you present these larger themes could be exclusive – and therefore exclusionary.
For instance, it might be some people’s goal to be able to climb a foreign mountain, but it’s clearly not a goal that some individuals in the world could ever be able to tackle. As such, by presenting the mountain as an aspirational end point, you’re excluding those who can never climb it. Think carefully about these deeper messages when you’re formulating your content and your campaigns.
Access is all a part of the wider movement towards equality – and that’s something that the internet can draw us towards, if you follow these three simple tips.
