Accessibility isn’t just a feel-good initiative; it’s a business imperative. By 2026, marketing strategies that aren’t and accessible will be leaving money on the table. Are you ready to tap into a wider audience and future-proof your campaigns?
Key Takeaways
- Ensure all website images have descriptive alt text, using keywords relevant to the image and surrounding content.
- Transcribe all video and audio content and offer captions or subtitles, boosting SEO and reaching a wider audience.
- Test your website’s color contrast using a tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker and adjust colors to meet WCAG guidelines.
## 1. Auditing Your Current Marketing Materials
Before you can make your marketing and accessible, you need to know where you stand. That means auditing everything: your website, your social media, your email campaigns, even your printed brochures (yes, some people still use those!). I recommend starting with your website. It’s often the central hub of your marketing efforts.
Use a tool like WAVE to identify accessibility errors on your site. This free tool, from WebAIM, highlights issues like missing alt text, low contrast, and structural problems. Run it on your homepage, key landing pages, and blog posts. Pay close attention to the “Errors” and “Alerts” categories.
Pro Tip: Don’t just rely on automated tools. They catch many issues, but a human review is essential. Ask a colleague or, better yet, a person with a disability to test your site and provide feedback.
## 2. Optimizing Website Images with Alt Text
Missing or poorly written alt text is one of the most common accessibility errors. Alt text (alternative text) is a short description of an image that screen readers use to convey the image’s content to visually impaired users. But it’s not just for accessibility; search engines also use alt text to understand the context of an image, which can improve your SEO.
To add or edit alt text in WordPress, go to your Media Library, select the image, and enter a descriptive phrase in the “Alt Text” field. For example, instead of “image1.jpg,” use “Woman smiling and holding a reusable coffee cup.”
Common Mistake: Stuffing alt text with keywords. While it’s tempting to use alt text to boost your SEO, focus on accurately describing the image. Keyword stuffing can actually hurt your ranking and make your website less accessible.
## 3. Captioning and Transcribing Video and Audio Content
Video and audio are powerful marketing tools, but they’re useless to people who can’t hear them without captions or transcripts. Adding captions is essential for accessibility and also benefits users who watch videos with the sound off (which is a lot of people!).
YouTube provides automatic captions, but they’re often inaccurate. Always review and edit them. Click the “Subtitles/CC” button below your video, then select “Edit” to correct any errors. For other platforms, you may need to upload a separate SRT file.
Transcripts are also valuable. Provide a text transcript of your video or audio content on your website. This improves accessibility and SEO, as search engines can crawl and index the text.
Pro Tip: Consider using a professional transcription service for complex or technical content. Services like Rev can provide accurate transcripts quickly.
## 4. Ensuring Sufficient Color Contrast
Color contrast is another critical aspect of accessibility. People with low vision or color blindness may have difficulty reading text if the contrast between the text and background is too low.
Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker to test the contrast ratio of your website’s text and background colors. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
If your colors don’t meet these requirements, adjust them. This might mean darkening the text, lightening the background, or choosing different colors altogether. I had a client last year who had a beautiful website design, but the light gray text on a slightly lighter gray background was unreadable for many users. We had to make some tough decisions to prioritize accessibility over aesthetics. She was not happy at first, but the increase in conversions and positive feedback changed her mind!
Common Mistake: Thinking that color contrast is only for people with disabilities. Poor color contrast can also make your website difficult to read for people with good vision, especially in bright sunlight or on low-quality screens.
## 5. Structuring Content with Headings and Landmarks
Proper heading structure is essential for screen reader users to navigate your website. Use headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to organize your content logically. The H1 should be the main title of the page, H2s should be major sections, and H3s should be subsections. Also, using HTML5 landmark elements like `
