Week 2 — Writing for the web
This past week I’ve tried to further my thinking on a DEI plan; looked at our organisation’s Style Guide in terms of inclusion; looked at our website’s accessibility; and had a very useful refresher on SEO and writing for the web with the Open Working Programme!
Slow and Steady…
The DEI work is starting to come together in my brain, but I’m aware that thinking is far from taking action and I need to make some definite steps soon.
I will be working with a group of our volunteers from next week so that should help to keep me accountable. And I’ve been thinking how best to induct the volunteers into the work so far, as well as look ahead to next steps. Listening to the Fearless Futures podcast has been really helpful as they provide incredible, concise definitions of how to think about systems, intersectionality, and tackling inequity.
Inclusion in Branding
With equity and inclusion in mind, I’ve also been revisiting our organisation’s Style Guide and trying to filter the necessary accessibility items from the ‘just a style’ items.
On my list are:
- Alt text in images — particularly thorny when working with data visualisation!
- Inclusive language use
- Diverse image use
This doesn’t feel like enough! What am I missing? More research is needed…
SEO and online writing
Then there’s our website. I used an accessibility checker (Google Lighthouse) the other day and a number of fixes are needed:
- Using correct headings on web pages for screen readers — I’m rewriting a bunch of the content so this should be imminently sorted.
- Using smaller/cached and better-loading images — the checker recommended WebP images which I’ve never heard of before — another delay to action while I have to read around this issue and learn if it’s a quick-ish fix!
- I’m horrified to see that a lot of our branding colours don’t provide a good enough contrast ratio — we pair orange and white text quite a lot. This is a problem I can’t tackle alone, I’ll have to take it to the US branch. A bit of a controversial one!
It was good to hear some of these things reiterated in the latest Open Working Programme. Good online writing is ultimately designed for tiny screens (well, smartphone screens, which are still relatively tiny). It should be succinct, clear, and have tags embedded throughout to help Google/the bots scan it. This is useful for everybody!
Also, probably not totally effectively tackled in this blog: content should be short!
As always, I’m reminded that creating accessibility makes content not only available but also better for everyone.
