How to write accessible web content

Readable web content

This guidance is for anyone creating or editing council web content. You do not need technical or accessibility expertise to follow it.

Write content that is clear, simple, and easy to read. This helps all people, including those using assistive technologies, understand and act on your content.

Why readable content matters

People may not have a choice when using council websites, so our content must work for everyone.

People using our websites may:

have different reading abilities, education levels, or digital skills
use English as a second language
have visual or reading difficulties
use assistive technologies such as screen readers, magnification, or voice control
have limited time or attention

Readable content:

helps people understand information quickly
works reliably with assistive technologies

The clearer your content is, the fewer questions and complaints you will receive.

What this guidance covers

To make content readable and accessible:, you should:

plan for your audience
write in plain English
structure content with clear headings and lists
use sufficient colour contrast
provide text alternatives for images, video and audio

These steps help people read your content and help assistive technologies understand it.

Where this guidance uses must, the action is required to meet accessibility requirements.

Where it uses should or where possible, the action improves usability for everyone.

Plan for your audience

Your writing will be most effective if you understand who you’re writing for.

Understanding your audience

You should know:

what people are interested in, worried about, or trying to do
the words and phrases they use to search for information

When planning content

get to the point early — put need-to-know information first (the inverted pyramid approach)
give clear instructions — if something is required, say must
use fewer words — longer content increases pressure on the brain
use ‘you’ and ‘we’ clearly,

Writing tone and style

Your writing tone shapes how people experience and understand your content. It includes word choice, sentence structure and overall style.

Write for how people read online and aim to reach the widest possible audience, including people using assistive technologies.

This means you should:

use plain English
make content easy to scan using headings and bulleted lists
use active voice (“Do this”) rather than passive voice (“This should be done”)
put user- or action-focused words first in headings, paragraphs, lists and links
include words and phrases people would use to search for your topic

Find specific style advice in:

Use plain English

The National Literacy Trust estimates that 1 in 6 adults in England have very poor literacy skills.

Use plain English. It's direct, clear, everyday language that helps as many people as possible understand your content.

It also supports assistive technologies, which rely on clear language, predictable structure and meaningful text to work effectively.

Features of plain English include:

short sentences and paragraphs
simple, everyday words
clear sections with enough spacing
easy-to-understand headings and bulleted lists
jargon avoided unless the audience is familiar
technical terms and acronyms explained

Plain English is generally understood by people with a reading level of around age 11 to 14 (at least some secondary education).

Learn more tips for writing in plain English

If people can understand your content easily, assistive technologies usually can too.

Structure for online reading

Use consistent wording, structure, and patterns for similar tasks across pages so people can recognise what to do and find information more easily.

Clear structure helps people and assistive technologies scan and navigate content and understand how information is organised.

Hyperlinks take people away from a page to related information they may need.

Follow our guidance on:

Using colour

Colour choices must work for everyone, including people using assistive technologies and those with colour vision deficiency or low vision.

Colour vision deficiency affects around 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. Other factors such as tiredness, lighting, screen quality, age, and neurological differences also affect how people perceive colour online.

For example, consider this text:

On a white background, yellow text is almost impossible to read for most users. Its contrast ratio is 1.07:1, making it inaccessible.

Colour contrast

Contrast ratio is the difference in brightness between two colours. No contrast (like white on a white background), has a ratio of 1 to 1.

Colours with very low or very high contrast can be harder for everyone to read. Some combinations may even be overwhelming.

Text content (minimum requirements)

Normal text (under 18 points or under 14 points bold) must be a minimum 4.5:1
Large text (18 points or larger, or 14 points bold or larger) must be a minimum 3:1

Non-text content (minimum requirements)

Colours used in non-text content, such as images, charts, tables, icons, or interactive components, must have a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1.

Examples:

Lines in charts or tables
Lines next to each other in graphs
Form field borders or buttons

Decorative images and logos do not need accessible contrast.

Do not use colour alone to convey meaning. Always include text labels, patterns, or other visual cues to show meaning.

Content with maximum readability (recommended best practice)

Though not required, the most most inclusive colour contrast ratio is:

Normal text (under 18 points or under 14 points bold) should be a minimum 7:1
Everything else should be a minimum of 4.5:1

Tips for authors

These rules apply to all content you publish on our website, including web pages, PDFs, Word documents, and other media.

If you are unsure which colours to use, online tools like this Accessible Color Palette Generator (Venngage) can help.

Learn about using and checking colour when publishing in specific formats:

Using non-text content (images, video, audio-only)

Explain information in words first. Text is faster and easier for most people to read and works across devices and assistive technologies.

Non-text content, such as images, video, or audio-only (like podcasts), takes longer to produce, costs more to maintain, and can be harder to make accessible.

Only use non-text content if there is a clear user need and you can make it accessible.

Non-text content must have text alternatives

Content authors are responsible for ensuring text alternatives are provided before content is published.

Assistive technologies cannot reliably interpret images, video, or audio without clear text alternatives.

People must be able to access important information from non-text content, including those who:

prefer or rely on text only
use screen readers, captions, transcripts, or other assistive tools
have limited bandwidth or load pages without images or video
use AI summary or reading tools

Before publishing non-text content, make sure you have:

alt text for meaningful images (decorative images do not need alt text)
text alternatives for charts, graphs, infographics, or images containing text
captions for videos, including all spoken content
transcripts for audio-only content, such as podcasts

Providing these text alternatives is required to meet accessibility standards.

For better accessibility, where possible:

make sure text alternatives are comparable to the content they replace
provide short written summaries near videos or audio to highlight key points
avoid relying solely on auto-generated alt text, captions, or transcripts - they are often incomplete or inaccurate

A text alternative must include all meaningful information conveyed by the non-text content, not just a brief label. If important information is not available as text, it is not accessible to everyone.

How to create text alternatives in different formats

Use the guidance below based on the format you are publishing, after meeting the core requirements on this page.

Common mistakes we see

Common issues with readable web content

Common issues that reduce readability and accessibility:

Writing long paragraphs instead of breaking content into shorter sections
Burying important information too far down the page
Using jargon, acronyms, or internal language without explanation
Using colour alone to convey meaning (for example, “items in red are urgent”)
Using low-contrast colour combinations that are hard to read
Publishing images, charts, or videos without checking text alternatives
Assuming auto-generated captions or alt text are accurate
Creating content without considering people using assistive technologies

These issues increase cognitive load and can prevent people from understanding or acting on the content.

Common issues when using non-text content (images, video, audio-only)

Common issues that make non-text content inaccessible:

Publishing images with no alt text or with placeholder text like “image”
Using images of text instead of real text
Providing alt text that labels an image but does not convey its meaning
Sharing charts or infographics without a text alternative explaining the data
Relying only on auto-generated captions or transcripts
Publishing videos without captions or audio-only content without transcripts
Including important information only in a video or image
Adding non-text content without a clear user need

If important information is only available in non-text content, it is not accessible to everyone.

Accessibility standards and resources

Following this guidance helps more people access council content and supports compliance with UK accessibility regulations, including PSBAR 2018.

For more guidance on accessibility and readability:

If system or format limits stop you from following this guidance, contact the Communications and Marketing team before publishing.

Last reviewed: December 2025