Cultural Content – tips for your Accessibility page
Guest post from Caspian Turner, founder of Accessible by Design
Happy Friday Cultural Content readers,
This morning we’ve got a guest post from Caspian Turner, digital accessibility specialist and founder of Accessible by Design.
Caspian’s my go to for accessibility questions, his pointers are all based on user testing with audiences with access requirements.
We were talking about creating a cultural content post for some time and tips for creating an Accessibility page on your website.
Here’s Caspian’s advice for this page…
A guide to Accessibility pages
Having the right information in a way that everyone can consume gives people the confidence needed to be able to attend events, knowing their needs will be met.
This article is written largely for people working at organisations with physical spaces. It includes some guidelines to ensure your accessibility page can be easily found and contains the content needed and expected when planning a visit.
The guidance here is based on feedback from focus groups, user interviews and usability studies that I’ve held over the past 18 months. Most participants said that if they couldn’t find a venue’s accessibility information, they would simply give up trying to book.
In order to welcome everyone, it’s crucial to include a dedicated accessibility landing page combining all the access information about your venue.
Your accessibility page can link out to other sections of your website. It doesn’t need to be unwieldy, but it should be comprehensive.
It’s also crucial to make sure that people can find this page! Website journeys are not linear. While you may hope users follow a specific journey through your website. Each person may start from a different page. Having the accessibility information available in the footer caters to every user journey.
Seven tips to creating a comprehensive accessibility page
An accessibility page should be a landing page for all the access information about your venue and events. It should include all the ‘ever green’ accessibility information about your venue or organisation.
When thinking about what we should include in an accessibility page, we need to think about user needs. What are the types of questions that visitors need to ask before making a decision to book a ticket or attend a gallery?
There are many questions that may need answering before attending, but as an example, these questions could include things like:
Are there quiet times?
Is there accessible parking
Are there seats at a general admission gig if I need to sit down part way through?
Is there a lowered bar where a wheelchair user can order a drink?
Are there changing places?
Can audiences leave a performance part way through?
Are there seats in exhibitions that can be used?
Are there ways to avoid queues for anyone who is unable to stand for long periods of time?
Does the production I’m attending have any loud noises or flashing lights? What time in the production does this occur?
Is there an interval, if so– when is it, and how long is it?
Will I be able to read the captions?
Some information may be more relevant to a specific event or a particular user journey. Be sure to also make access information available during the booking process - providing users the information they need, at the time they need it.
1. Include a link to your accessibility page in the footer
Don’t make people hunt for accessibility information. Most people expect to find an accessibility page wherever they land on your website.
Some organisations choose to include all access information under ‘Your visit’. Others use legal sounding or policy like naming conventions such as ‘Diversity, inclusion and access policy’.
I’d recommend using the link text ‘Accessibility’, ‘Access’, or ‘Access information’.
In most of the usability testing I’ve facilitated, screen reader users in particular will perform a ‘look up’ or scroll through links and first search the letter ‘A’ within links. The expectation is that your accessibility page will appear on every page and the link will start with the word ‘Access’.
2. Tell people how they can get in touch with you.
Last year I held focus groups with 45 people who had a diverse range of access needs when booking for and attending events.
One of the key frustrations was not being able to speak to a person. Sometimes a page on a website will never be the reassurance needed to attend an in-person event. Particularly if you’ve never been to a venue before and you have specific questions.
Make it easy to get in touch and provide a variety of ways to do so. Giving multiple routes to get in touch ensures that you’re not excluding people.
For example offering the ability to get in touch by phone, by email, by live chat or through services such as SignLive, a service that offers British Sign Language interpretation on demand.
Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) does this very well on their access page. There is a clear route to get in touch via multiple channels. In addition EIF includes a sign interpreted video about accessibility at EIF.
3. Be specific and descriptive. Avoid ambiguity.
When planning the content for your access page, include everything that is accessible, but also include anything that you know to be inaccessible.
If you know that part of the building is not accessible by lift, tell people! It’s far more frustrating to turn up only to find this out first-hand.
You may write ‘there is step-free access to all levels’. However, there are many different needs for step-free access and indicating that there is step-free access doesn’t provide enough detail to know whether – for example – a lift can fit a power chair, a scooter or mobility aids.
This is an example from the British Museum’s Accessibility page. I like this because it uses clear headings. Each heading can be expanded to find further details. The British Museum is also very clear about which galleries have no lift or level access. While this isn’t great in itself, it’s good to be clear and transparent about this so that visitors know in advance of attending.
4. Include information in a variety of formats
Including photos and audio described videos can be particularly helpful for audiences planning a visit.
The more information you provide, the easier it will be for your audiences to make an informed decision about whether their needs will be met. This is helpful for everyone.
5. Direct the page to your audience and visitors using the second person. ‘You’.
When writing your access page, address your readers as people using the second person. For example, ‘You can get in touch with our access team by phone, email, in person or by live chat’.
Avoid using first or third person as this can create a distancing effect between your organisation and your visitors. We’re all people speaking to one another, talking about the physical spaces that people will visit. Let’s try not to hide behind the guise of a corporation.
6. Provide details about accessible services and events
It’s likely that your organisation organises accessible events such as Sign Language interpreted performances, captioned, audio description, touch tours, or relaxed performances.
Be sure to include a description of what each of these types of events involve. Don’t expect all audiences to recognise symbols or abbreviations related to these services.
Include a list of upcoming access events and accessible performances from your access page. I’d recommend linking to another page that aggregates all access performances or – better still – allowing users to filter access performances directly on your what’s on page.
7. Website accessibility statement
If you are a public sector body, you need to have a web accessibility page. If you’re not, it’s still considered best practice to include one.
A website accessibility statement tells visitors how accessible your website is. It should state anything that you know to be inaccessible and what your plans are to resolve this.
The website accessibility statement is a legal document and so needs to contain specific information, including some specific statements about your level of compliance. You’ll need to have undertaken a web accessibility audit before you can create this page.
Gov.uk has some really useful advice including a sample accessibility statement.
I’d recommend starting from the sample accessibility statement and developing your own from this template. Once you have written your statement, be sure to include a link to this within your Accessibility page.
Further reading
Last year VocalEyes, Stagetext, Autism in Museums and the Centre for Accessible Environments published the Heritage Access Report 2022. This involved auditing over 2000 websites and assessing the access information included. VocalEyes also produced a benchmarking report which details a score for each of the 2,258 UK museums and heritage sites covered by the project.
It’s worth taking a read through!
There are also a whole host of resources available on the Unlimited website, including the Demystifying Access report (PDF).
And last but not least, Access Starts Online from Attitude is Everything.
The main thing to consider here is that your audiences know best. If you are unsure about any of the information you’re including. Check if the content meets user needs through surveys, inclusive usability studies or user interviews. But do make sure you compensate your audience for their time and expertise.