Accessibility: content writing and UI design
Approaching accessibility holistically
This week, in my TECM 5200: Content Strategy course at the University of North Texas, I explored accessibility in content writing. This topic strongly connects to my role and responsibilities as a design leader.
I’m passionate about accessibility because I’ve learned that designing with accessibility in mind doesn’t just benefit those with disabilities—it improves the experience for everyone. Closed video captions are a great example of designing with accessibility in mind. Initially developed for the hearing impaired, captions have become widely used by everyone. Many people now prefer to watch videos with subtitles, whether turned on due to background noise, actor accents, or other distractions. I often use them, even when I don’t need them, because they improve my viewer experience.
What did you read or watch that surprised, delighted, or disappointed you? Why?
While watching Professor Dr. Kim Sydow Campbell’s lecture, “Assessing Content: Part 2 (Module 4: TECM 5200),” I was surprised by her emphasis on accessibility throughout the customer journey. She highlighted how accessibility needs to be considered at every stage—from awareness and consideration to retention and advocacy. This aligns closely with what I've learned about service design thinking. Service design examines the entire user experience across various touchpoints, including pre-service, during-service, and post-service stages.
Examining the content design perspective has helped me realign my focus from a primarily web-centric view of accessibility—where I concentrated on elements like color contrast and text size—to a more holistic approach. It was refreshing to refocus and deepen my understanding of the need to consider accessibility across all user touchpoints, including other mediums such as advertisements, blogs, and social media campaigns. This broader view ensures that accessibility is seamlessly integrated into every aspect of the user journey, not just the web design components.
Another key takeaway was Dr. Kim’s breakdown of the top five aspects of accessibility: content, images, headings, color, and media. While I’ve applied some of these concepts in my work—such as using alt text for images and ensuring proper color contrast—there were elements I hadn’t fully considered. For example, ensuring that content is written in plain language and avoiding idioms and complex metaphors was new to me. I also learned that there should always be one top-level heading (H1), with subsequent headings appropriately organized, which I hadn’t thought about from a frontend web development perspective. After reading “Writing for Web Accessibility” from W3C, I learned even more about creating accessible written content, which includes writing meaningful page titles, crafting clear alt text for images, making text links more informative, and using transcripts and captions for media.
What was most meaningful for your own career goals? Why?
This week’s lessons were significant because they expanded my understanding of accessibility beyond UI design and into content strategy. This made me think,
“As a Product Designer overseeing the entire product design, I should be mindful of all user touchpoints, keeping my blind spots in mind.”
Learning about content auditing and how to make all forms of content more accessible for everyone has reinforced the importance of human-centered design thinking. These lessons helped me realize that while I’ve been designing with accessibility in mind, I need to take a more holistic approach.