Accessibility and inclusion guidance launched today

Good Things Foundation has a mission to ‘fix the digital divide’.  This means helping everyone who wants to, to make the most of the digital world.  The barriers to digital inclusion are many and varied. Access to the equipment needed or having the money to afford good access is a challenge for many.  For others it is about skills and confidence. Sometimes it is hard to access services, information or events because of how things are designed. This means that those with different accessibility needs are unable to access the same services as others. 

Considering the accessibility of content and events can make it easy for all to access information. If you have low or no barriers, content that is is presented clearly, in simple language and with clear explanation is easier to understand.

Communicating in an accessible way will increase the reach and understanding of your messages.

Here at Good Things Foundation we are working hard to improve the accessibility of our products and services.  There is lots to do. Lots we can learn.  We are addressing the accessibility of our products and services one step at a time. We are only a small part of the change that needs to happen. 

We are members of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Health and Wellbeing Alliance.  It is a collaboration between health and care sector representatives and VCSE organisations. It is a great chance to work with many other voluntary organisations and health experts.  We are all working together to improve health and care services so that everyone can use them. The Alliance helps us to work with others to improve services so they are more accessible for everyone. This means we can make it easier for us all to reduce health inequalities.

Today we are sharing a piece of work we have completed as part of our work with the alliance. 

Our Accessibility and inclusion guidance. This document includes our shared knowledge on how communications and events can be made more accessible to reduce inequalities.  It includes top tips on how to write and design content to make it more accessible. It also includes guidance on the best language to use when referring to certain target groups. 

The Health and Wellbeing Alliance are committing to  5 core principles to make our work more accessible.  We are promising to do at least this in all our activities. These 5 principles are:

1. Our content is easy to read: Sentences are short and Language is tested for readability
2. We will use at least font size 14 and a Sans Serif font style
3. We will adopt inclusive language as best practice
4. We will add image descriptions and alt text for online content
5. We will organise meetings ahead of time. Checking audience requirements and sending materials in advance

We will use this guidance to help us to check that our content is accessible. Where our content is not accessible we will use it to help us improve. We will share this guidance with others to help them do better too.  

At Good Things Foundation we know that we haven’t adopted all these principles yet. We are committed to embedding these principles in our work from this point forward.  If you would like to learn more about the guidance please see the page on our site (linked).  Look out for some upcoming events/ workshops sharing the guidance.  We will share examples of good practice to help inspire you and others to do more.