How to Write Accessible Content: A Guide for Writers, Marketers, and Content Creators

You don’t need to be a developer to make your website more accessible. In fact, some of the most impactful accessibility improvements come from the people who write the words on the page — content creators, marketers, copywriters, and editors.

If you write blog posts, product descriptions, email newsletters, or social media captions, you already have the power to make the web more inclusive. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) now requires digital content to be accessible, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been enforced against inaccessible websites for years. But beyond legal compliance, accessible content simply reaches more people.

This guide covers the practical, non-technical steps you can take right now to make your content work for everyone — including people who use screen readers, have cognitive disabilities, are reading in a second language, or are accessing your site on a mobile device in bright sunlight.

Why Accessible Content Matters

Roughly 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. That includes people who are blind or have low vision, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people with motor disabilities, and people with cognitive or learning disabilities. But accessible content doesn’t just help people with permanent disabilities.

Think about the last time you tried to read a long block of text on your phone while walking, or struggled to understand a jargon-heavy email from a vendor. Accessible content helps in all of these situations:

  • Permanent disabilities: A blind user navigating with a screen reader needs properly structured headings and descriptive link text to find information efficiently.
  • Temporary impairments: Someone recovering from eye surgery needs high contrast and large text options.
  • Situational limitations: A parent holding a baby while reading on their phone benefits from clear, scannable content.
  • Language barriers: A non-native English speaker relies on plain language and clear sentence structure.

When you write accessibly, you write better content for everyone.

Use Clear, Descriptive Headings

Headings are one of the most important accessibility features on any webpage. Screen reader users often navigate a page by jumping from heading to heading — it’s the equivalent of scanning a page visually to find the section you need.

What to do:

  • Use heading levels in order (H1, then H2, then H3). Don’t skip levels just because you prefer how an H4 looks.
  • Make headings descriptive. “Our Approach” tells a screen reader user nothing. “How We Reduce Shipping Costs by 30%” tells them exactly what the section contains.
  • Don’t use headings purely for visual styling. If you want big, bold text that isn’t actually a section heading, ask your developer to create a styled class instead.

Before:

Section 1 Here’s some information about what we do…

After:

How Our Inventory System Saves You 10 Hours Per Week Here’s how the system automates your most repetitive tasks…

Write Meaningful Link Text

“Click here” and “read more” are two of the most common accessibility failures in web content. Screen reader users can pull up a list of all links on a page to navigate quickly. When every link says “click here,” that list is useless.

What to do:

  • Make link text describe where the link goes or what it does.
  • The link should make sense even when read out of context.
  • Avoid “click here,” “read more,” “learn more,” and “this page” as standalone link text.

Before:

To see our pricing, click here. For our accessibility checklist, click here.

After:

View our pricing plans or download our free accessibility checklist.

Use Plain Language

Plain language isn’t about dumbing things down — it’s about being clear. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend writing at a lower secondary education reading level when possible. This benefits people with cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, attention disorders, and anyone reading in a second language.

What to do:

  • Use short sentences (under 25 words when possible).
  • Choose common words over jargon. Say “use” instead of “utilize,” “start” instead of “commence,” “help” instead of “facilitate.”
  • Define technical terms the first time you use them.
  • Break up long paragraphs. Aim for 3-4 sentences per paragraph maximum.
  • Use bullet points and numbered lists to present multiple items.

Before:

Our proprietary solution leverages cutting-edge AI capabilities to facilitate the optimization of your digital presence, enabling seamless integration with your existing technology stack to maximize ROI across all touchpoints.

After:

Our tool uses AI to improve your website’s performance. It works with the tools you already have, helping you get more value from your online presence.

Provide Text Alternatives for Images

If you manage a CMS like WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace, you’re likely the person adding images and writing alt text. This is one of the most direct ways content creators impact accessibility.

What to do:

  • Write alt text that conveys the purpose and content of the image. What would someone miss if the image didn’t load?
  • Keep alt text concise — usually one or two sentences.
  • For decorative images (visual flourishes, background textures), leave the alt text field empty so screen readers skip them.
  • For charts and graphs, describe the key data points or trends, not just “bar chart showing sales data.”
  • Don’t start alt text with “image of” or “picture of” — screen readers already announce it as an image.

Before:

Alt text: “photo.jpg”

After:

Alt text: “Customer service team member helping a client at a standing desk in a bright, modern office”

For a deeper dive, read our guide on accessible images beyond alt text.

Structure Content for Scanning

Most people don’t read web content word by word — they scan. This is even more true for screen reader users, who navigate by headings, lists, and landmarks. Well-structured content is easier for everyone to process.

What to do:

  • Start with the most important information (inverted pyramid style).
  • Use bullet points and numbered lists for groups of items.
  • Keep paragraphs short and focused on one idea.
  • Use bold text sparingly to highlight key terms (but don’t bold entire paragraphs — it loses its emphasis).
  • Add a table of contents for long articles so readers can jump to relevant sections.

Write Accessible Tables

If you create comparison tables, pricing tables, or data tables in your CMS, the way you set them up matters for accessibility.

What to do:

  • Use actual table elements, not images of tables or text formatted to look like tables.
  • Include a clear header row and mark it as a header in your CMS.
  • Add a caption or title that describes what the table contains.
  • Keep tables simple. If a table needs merged cells or complex spans, consider whether the data could be presented differently.

For detailed guidance, see our accessible tables guide.

Make Video and Audio Content Accessible

If you produce video content, podcasts, or webinars, accessibility extends beyond the written word.

What to do:

  • Add captions to all videos. Auto-generated captions are a starting point, but they need manual review — especially for technical terms, proper nouns, and accents.
  • Provide transcripts for podcasts and audio content.
  • Include audio descriptions for videos where important visual information isn’t conveyed through dialogue.
  • Don’t rely solely on color or visuals to convey meaning in presentations.

Our video accessibility and captions guide covers this topic in detail.

Be Careful with Emoji, Symbols, and Special Characters

Emoji can add personality to content, but they create problems when overused. Screen readers read each emoji aloud by its official description. A string of five fire emoji reads as “fire fire fire fire fire,” which is disruptive and confusing.

What to do:

  • Use emoji sparingly — one or two to complement text, not replace it.
  • Don’t use emoji in the middle of sentences where they replace words.
  • Avoid using special characters like ”|” or ”>” as visual separators in navigation or lists. Use proper HTML list elements instead.
  • Don’t use ALL CAPS for emphasis. Screen readers may spell out each letter. Use bold or italic formatting instead.

Before:

We help businesses succeed online!! Check out our services below

After:

We help businesses succeed online. Check out our services below.

Use Inclusive Language

Accessible content is also about the words you choose and who they include or exclude.

What to do:

  • Use person-first or identity-first language appropriately. Many disability communities prefer identity-first language (e.g., “blind person” or “Deaf community”), while others prefer person-first (“person with a disability”). When in doubt, follow the preference of the community you’re writing about.
  • Avoid ableist language like “lame,” “blind spot,” or “falling on deaf ears” when used metaphorically.
  • Don’t describe accessibility features as being “for disabled people” — frame them as improvements that benefit everyone.
  • Use gender-neutral language when the gender of your audience is unknown.

Create Accessible Documents and PDFs

If you share downloadable resources — whitepapers, guides, worksheets, menus — the format matters.

What to do:

  • Whenever possible, offer content as a webpage rather than a PDF. Web content is inherently more flexible and accessible.
  • If you must use PDFs, ensure they are tagged PDFs (not scanned images), with proper heading structure, alt text, and reading order.
  • Use the built-in accessibility checker in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Adobe Acrobat before publishing.
  • Provide an HTML alternative for important PDF documents.

Our accessible PDF guide walks through the full process.

Quick Checklist for Content Creators

Before you publish any piece of content, run through this checklist:

  • Headings are descriptive and follow a logical hierarchy (H1 > H2 > H3)
  • All links have meaningful text that makes sense out of context
  • Images have descriptive alt text (or empty alt for decorative images)
  • Language is plain and jargon is defined on first use
  • Paragraphs are short and content is scannable
  • Tables have proper headers and captions
  • Videos have accurate captions and transcripts are available
  • Emoji use is minimal and doesn’t replace meaningful text
  • Documents are available in accessible formats

The Business Case for Accessible Content

Beyond doing the right thing, accessible content delivers measurable business results:

  • Better SEO: Search engines reward well-structured content with clear headings, descriptive links, and alt text. Google can’t see your images — it relies on the same alt text that screen readers use.
  • Wider reach: Accessible content serves the 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide, plus billions more who benefit from clear, well-structured writing.
  • Legal protection: The EAA, ADA, and similar laws worldwide are increasingly enforced. Accessible content reduces your legal risk.
  • Higher conversions: Clear calls to action, readable text, and well-organized pages lead to better engagement and conversion rates for all users.

Start Where You Are

You don’t need to fix everything at once. Start with your next blog post, your next product description, or your next email newsletter. Apply one or two of these practices, then add more over time. Every piece of accessible content you publish makes the web a little more inclusive.

The most important step is simply paying attention to how your content will be experienced by someone who can’t see the screen, who reads slowly, or who is navigating with a keyboard instead of a mouse.

We’re building a simple accessibility checker for non-developers — no DevTools, no jargon. Join our waitlist to get early access.