What is one way that you can improve digital content so it can be understood by all audiences?

One of the most effective ways to Improve digital content for all audiences is to ask critical questions about the expected experience to be had by users. Ask a designer to navigate their design with their eyes closed. Ask a video producer to watch a video without the sound. Test using the software in the manner that users with specific needs around accessibility will operate. Doing so changes the process of creating accessible content from a standards-driven exercise to an experiential process more closely related to both user needs. In this way, design, both the business goals and the diversity of user needs can be addressed in a manner that supports inclusivity and welcomes as many users as possible to enjoy the offered goods and services.

Designers need to start thinking about users with Neurological Disabilities. The most common reaction to inaccessible digital content for Neurodiverse users is never revisiting the page again. Using jargon and metaphors that require background understanding of the context is not very accessible and user-friendly for all users including those with cognitive and learning disabilities. Therefore, we all must use plain language to design the best experience for users. Here are some of the basic steps to using plain language: 1. Think about how your audience will read not just what you want to write, 2. Organize the information in a logical order and structure, 3. Have a topic sentence, 4. Be concise and descriptive while being clear on your point, 5. Put subject, verb, and object close to each other. Although Neurodiversity has not been traditionally accommodated in digital accessibility, we all must be aware that WCAG compliance is only the beginning and not the end goal.

The design of your website or blog can have a big impact on how easily accessible your content is. Make sure that your site is easy to navigate and use. Pay attention to the font size and color scheme you use — dark text on a light background is generally easier to read than light text on a dark background. Use hyperlinks judiciously, and make sure that they are clearly labeled, so readers know what happens if they click on them. Creating an effective design for your site will take some trial and error, but it’s important to put in the effort so that your readers can easily find and consume your content.

Providing alt text (alternative text) for digital images is an essential way to expand your reach. Writing quality alt text is a unique skill, and one we can all benefit from learning and applying. If you’re describing an image of a man and a cat, rather than writing “man and cat” as your alt text, incorporate more detail or, as parents often say, use your words. For example, “A light-skinned man with brown eyes and close-cropped dark brown hair, visible from the shoulders up, holds a black cat near his face. The cat gazes at the man intently. The background is a plain white wall.”

We all start with some bias. Our bias influences the channels, tools and mediums we choose for our content, our words, how long our sentences are, the colours and imagery we style with, and who we think we are trying to reach. Start by questioning yourself and reflect on the assumptions you are making about your audience. Have you thought of who your ideal audience might be? Who is not included in that group? Why? Did you intentionally not include a group? Why? Think about who you did not initially include, and reflect on what they might need from you to consume your content. If you produce digital content, you have the power to be an agent of change. How you think, unlearn, question and re-question yourself will determine how you ensure everyone has equal access to what you put out there.

A transcript is a powerful tool for making video and audio-based digital media accessible and understandable for a wide range of users. A transcript is a text version of visual and/or auditory content. A basic transcript includes only auditory information, such as dialogue and background noise, making it a suitable alternative to audio-only content for users who are D/deaf or hard of hearing. A descriptive transcript uses text to convey all details that would be perceived by watching and listening to a video, making it accessible for users who are D/deafblind, blind, and low vision, including those who use screen reader software. Transcripts convert time-based media into text that can be accessed, understood, and shared by users with a wide range of needs and preferences. When added to a personal or company website, transcripts also improve Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) by making audio and video-based media more likely to show up in relevant search engine results.

Accessibility is a user experience issue and creating the best experience for people consuming your content should be a high priority. So how should you think about content and accessibility? It can be summed up in one word: Clarity. One way to ensure clarity is to follow a logical hierarchy when presenting content rather than giving little thought to content organization and readability. Realizing people consume content differently, another way to provide clarity is to allow for multiple ways to access content (i.e. audio, subtitles, etc). Creating clarity in your content requires thoughtfulness and purpose, but the result is content that is a great experience for your entire audience.

Make sure to use different content formats to cater to different audience preferences. If you create a blog post about a particular topic, for example, you can repurpose the same content as the basis for a new video, podcast, or infographic. This lets your content adapt to consumers’ various preferences and learning styles, making your message more accessible to a broader audience. Repurposing content also lets you develop your expertise on the various types and platforms available, allowing you to finetune your message and get the most out of your effort.

Alongside the over 1 billion, or 15% of the global population who have some kind of disability or impairment, are countless more for whom either temporally or situationally are also impaired. To ensure we reach all audiences we need to think in terms of sight, sound, gender and race. For each we need to make available as many ways of consuming content as are required and needs much more effort than simply recording a video. Ensuring assistive technologies like screen readers work or audio description are present is essential; captions are a must; they or them covers everyone and having diverse representation appeals to all audiences. Accessibility is tightly related to inclusion so the choice of how to interact, as well as inclusive language and representation will ensure you reach the widest audience.

To improve digital content accessibility for the most ubiquitous variety of individuals in your audiences, make certain to integrate accessibility features that have been tested and shown to be safe at the inception of development. The upcoming version of Accessibility guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 3.0) is revised to include innovative technologies, such as mobile devices, wearables, interactive content, and virtual and augmented reality. As increased devices, technologies, and future content are all covered by the new legislation, these guidelines provide an outline for potential digital features as well as how current technologies can be created more inclusively and usable. As WCAG criteria govern a range of content possibilities, you are likely to already have accessibility in mind while generating creative content to ensure diversity of thought.

Reach out to people who may need a component of accessibility for practical advice. Speak with a range of consumers, including a disabled person, a hearing impaired person, and a visually impaired person to get their perspective. The best way to improve your digital content so it can be understood by all audiences is to speak with different groups of people and find out what would be beneficial to them.

Improving digital content can be done by curating content, which allows your content to be understood by all audiences. Never bore your audience by crafting dull content which discusses the brand and delivers one perspective. But content curation helps interact with the key members in the community, keep the industry professionals and thought leaders engaged, and deliver top-notch perspective, and value to your audience. The best way to curate content is to use social media and use relevant quotes, round-up pieces, statistics, examples, and use cases. By doing this, you will find yourself crafting valuable relationships with other folks in the content industry.

To date using video as a digital marketing tool proved the most effective decision. Taking time out to produce video content for my website, email marketing newsletters and SEO marketing content proved invaluable driving up sales by more than 60%. This also says to me that business owners are in need of a digital marketing solution to measure success rates. The most successful digital marketing campaigns are those that can be measured. A video takes out the mundanity of writing to read content and adds an element of creativity, originality and ease when communicating on a social media platform. It definitely makes sense to jump on the bandwagon to avoid being left behind. It would also be a great idea to find solutions to measure the effectiveness of those social media campaigns. The best way to measure this up would be to check if your phones are ringing off the hook as mine has.

While written content can often be misconstrued or interpreted differently, images and illustrations are a lot more straightforward and objective. When you have easy-to-follow illustrations accompanying bodies of text, it gives your audience a great visual cue and helps them better understand the point you're trying to make.

'Short words are best,' said Winston Churchill. It's good advice - short words make it easier for everyone to read what you have written, not just people with smaller vocabularies and people who are reading in their second language but also people who are busy, distracted or disengaged. Similarly, shorter sentences tend to be clearer and more to the point. Again, this makes it easier for you to get your message across.

Many people are visual learners, thus, conveying information through only words can leave a gap in their understanding, and why combining written content with infographics is a more effective way to be understood by a wider audience. Studies have shown that only 10% of people remember what they read, but nearly 65% retain information that is disseminated through visual means. By utilizing charts, graphs, diagrams, illustrations and other visuals, and combining it with your written content, you can greatly improve your communication and more effectively reach all audiences. Pairing these methods, not only provides greater detail, but also speeds up the ability to process information, allowing you to provide a greater amount of detail with no reduction in understanding. In using infographics, you will reach a wider audience without alienating any segment.

One way to improve digital content for audience members of all ages is to make it more interactive. No matter what age, everyone loves to have their voice heard. On social media, include polls or a voting platform at the end of a post to better reach out to viewers. If the technology has live-commenting available during a stream, encourage people to contribute to Q+As, or do live quizzes for prizes.

Your digital content should have alternative text options for images. This way, anyone is able to engage with the content, no matter what type of accessibility they may have. Most platforms have an easy way to add it to posts. Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn all have it easily available when making a post. Try to add it so digital content can be understood by all audiences.

Sometimes, I think pop-up info would work for complicated digital content. There was a show once called Pop Video. It showed music videos but put trivia bits in little balloons at different parts of the video explaining things about the location, the set, the instruments, and the musicians. That was a good way to educate people more about the video. The same concept can be easily used for complicated digital content. That way, those in the video won't have to take time to explain certain concepts. The background information can be placed in the pop-up infoboxes. That way people can see and hear information. It's been studied that if people use two or more senses regarding information they'll be more likely to remember it. That means those who see and hear information in digital content using this method will likely remember it better than those who just view a video alone.

Avoid using technical words and jargon when publishing digital content. This practice is a great way to make your content easily accessible and understandable to any audience. Your main goal is to get the message across, and using words that only a few or niche individuals understand is counterproductive to your work. While some terms may be challenging to translate into layman's words, you need to explain them in detail and with examples to help your audience understand better.