Creating Accessible Content: UK Guide for Marketers

Creating accessible content means producing text, images, and multimedia that anyone can understand and use, including people with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor disabilities. For businesses in Northern Ireland and across the UK, getting this right is both a legal obligation and a practical SEO advantage that most content teams still underestimate.

The UK Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 set clear expectations for digital content. Private sector organisations are not exempt. Beyond compliance, accessible content performs better in search: logical heading structures, descriptive link text, and plain English all align directly with how Google and AI systems evaluate quality. This guide covers every layer of the process, from copy and visuals to video and social media.

The UK Legal Picture

Two pieces of legislation define the UK accessibility picture for digital content.

The Equality Act 2010 requires that service providers make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage. For websites, this means that content that cannot be accessed by a screen reader user may constitute indirect discrimination. There is no minimum site size that creates an exemption.

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 go further for government, local councils, the NHS, and other public sector organisations. These bodies must publish an accessibility statement, meet WCAG 2.1 AA as a minimum, and remediate identified issues within a defined timeframe. In Northern Ireland, the same regulations apply as in England, Scotland, and Wales. Public bodies in the Republic of Ireland operate under the European Web Accessibility Directive, administered through the National Disability Authority (NDA).

Private sector organisations are not bound by the 2018 Regulations, but the Equality Act still applies. A failure to make a website accessible to a disabled user who then cannot complete a transaction or access a service is actionable. As Ciaran Connolly, founder of ProfileTree, puts it: “For most SMEs we work with, accessibility compliance is not the motivating factor; they’re motivated by not wanting to exclude customers. When you frame it as ‘this is how you reach more people,’ it changes the conversation entirely.”

The POUR Framework

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) organise every accessibility requirement under four principles. Understanding these helps content teams prioritise decisions without memorising every technical criterion.

Perceivable means users can receive the information regardless of how they sense it. A photograph without alt text is not perceivable by a screen reader user. A video without captions is not perceivable by someone who is deaf or in a noisy environment.

Operable means users can navigate and interact with content using any input method, including keyboard-only navigation and switch access devices. A form that can only be submitted by clicking a mouse button fails this test.

Understandable means the language and interface behaviour are clear. Plain English, consistent navigation, and predictable page structure all contribute here. WCAG recommends content be written at a reading age accessible to a general audience. For most UK public-facing content, that means aiming for a reading age of around nine to twelve.

Robust means content works reliably across different browsers, assistive technologies, and future tools. Semantic HTML, correct heading hierarchy, and properly marked-up forms all contribute to this reliability.

Most content failures on real sites fall under Perceivable and Understandable. Fixing those two categories addresses the majority of access barriers.

Accessible Written Content

The core of accessible content is written copy that works for everyone, including screen reader users, people with cognitive differences, and non-native speakers. Three areas account for most failures.

Heading Structure and Hierarchy

Headings are the primary navigation tool for screen reader users. A page with no headings, or headings used for visual styling rather than structure, is effectively un-navigable for someone using a screen reader. Use a single H1 per page, progress logically through H2 and H3 levels, and never skip heading levels.

Headings should describe the section content accurately. “Overview” and “More Information” are not useful. “How the UK Equality Act applies to private websites” gives a screen reader user enough context to decide whether to read the section.

Plain English and Cognitive Accessibility

Plain English is not about dumbing content down. It is about removing the processing load that stops people from understanding what you mean. Short sentences, active voice, and concrete language all reduce cognitive effort. This benefits readers with dyslexia, ADHD, and acquired cognitive impairments, as well as readers who are not native English speakers.

Specific practices that help: keep sentences under 20 words on average, avoid idioms and figures of speech, explain abbreviations on first use, and break instructions into numbered steps rather than embedding them in dense paragraphs. Avoid justified text alignment, which creates uneven spacing that can be difficult for dyslexic readers to track.

Descriptive Link Text

“Click here” and “read more” are among the most common accessibility failures on professional websites. Screen reader users often navigate by moving between links, hearing only the link text without the surrounding context. “Click here” tells them nothing.

Descriptive link text explains where the link goes or what it does: “download the WCAG 2.2 quick reference guide” or “view our web design process for Belfast businesses.” This also benefits SEO directly, as descriptive anchor text gives search engines clearer signals about the linked page’s content. ProfileTree’s web design services for Belfast businesses apply these principles from the planning stage, building an accessible structure into the site architecture before a line of copy is written.

Images, Video, and Multimedia

Images carry a significant part of the information load on most web pages. How you handle alt text, captions, and transcripts determines whether that information reaches everyone.

Alt Text for Images

Every image that carries meaning needs alt text. The purpose of alt text is to convey the same information the image conveys, not to describe it photographically. A graph showing that 68% of UK SMEs increased their digital marketing spend in 2024 should have alt text that communicates the finding, not just “a bar chart.”

Images used purely for decoration should receive empty alt attributes (alt=””) so screen readers do not announce them.

Captions and Audio Descriptions for Video

Captions make video content accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing users, people in sound-sensitive environments, and non-native language speakers. Accurate, synchronised captions are now a baseline expectation; auto-generated captions from platforms like YouTube are a starting point, not a finished product. Review and correct them before publishing.

Audio descriptions go further by providing a narrated description of visual information during natural pauses in the main audio. They are required for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance for prerecorded video that contains meaningful visual content not already conveyed in the soundtrack.

Transcripts cover both the audio and the visual content in text form. They are particularly useful for users who prefer to read or who need to search for specific information within a long video. Transcripts also give search engines full text to index, which benefits organic visibility for video content.

Making Tables and Infographics Accessible

Data tables need proper semantic markup. Use <th> elements with scope attributes to identify row and column headers. Avoid merged cells where possible. Provide a caption or surrounding prose that summarises what the table shows, so the data is meaningful even without the visual layout.

Infographics present a particular challenge because they typically contain information that cannot be conveyed in a short alt text. The practical solution is to provide the same information in the page body, either as a summary paragraph or a structured table, and mark the infographic as decorative (alt=””) once the equivalent text is present.

Social Media and Emerging Platforms

Accessibility on social platforms is often overlooked in content guidelines, despite being one of the highest-volume publishing environments for marketing teams.

Alt text on social images: LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, and Instagram all support alt text for images. Most scheduling tools allow you to add it before posting. This takes approximately 30 seconds per image and is frequently skipped.

CamelCase hashtags: #accessiblecontent is read by most screen readers as a single unrecognisable string. #AccessibleContent is read as three separate words. Use CamelCase for all multi-word hashtags.

Emojis: Screen readers announce every emoji by name. A sentence ending with five decorative emojis becomes five consecutive spoken descriptions. Use emojis purposefully and limit them to one or two per post. Avoid placing them mid-sentence where they interrupt the text flow.

Auto-captions for video: Most platforms now generate auto-captions. Review them before publishing. Names, technical terms, and accented speech are the most frequent sources of error.

The Accessibility Audit Checklist

Use this as a pre-publishing check for any content asset.

Written content

• [ ] Single H1, logical heading hierarchy (H2, H3), no skipped levels
• [ ] All link text is descriptive (no “click here” or “read more”)
• [ ] Plain English: sentences average under 20 words
• [ ] Abbreviations explained on first use
• [ ] No reliance on colour alone to convey meaning

Images

• [ ] Meaningful images have descriptive alt text
• [ ] Decorative images have empty alt attributes (alt=””)
• [ ] Data visualisations have text equivalents in the page body

Video and audio

• [ ] Captions reviewed and corrected (not raw auto-captions)
• [ ] Transcript provided for audio and video content
• [ ] Audio descriptions added for prerecorded video with meaningful visuals

Social media

• [ ] Alt text added before publishing images
• [ ] Hashtags written in CamelCase
• [ ] Emoji use is minimal and purposeful

Forms and interactive elements

• [ ] Every input field has a visible label
• [ ] Error messages are specific and explain how to correct the issue
• [ ] All interactions can be completed using a keyboard

Conclusion

Creating accessible content is not a separate task that sits outside your standard production process. The practices covered here (plain English, logical heading structure, descriptive link text, alt text, captions) are the same practices that improve search visibility, reduce bounce rates, and make content easier for everyone to use. For businesses in Belfast and across Northern Ireland, the legal context adds a further practical reason to treat accessibility as a default rather than an afterthought.

ProfileTree’s web design and content teams build accessibility into site architecture from the planning stage. If you want to assess where your current site stands, our web design services for Belfast businesses include an initial review of content structure, heading hierarchy, and on-page accessibility signals.

FAQs

Web accessibility questions come up constantly for UK content teams, from legal duties to practical implementation. The answers below cover the most common ones.