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Accessible copywriting guidance

When we write accessibly, we ensure a range of audiences can hear what we have to say, whether providing guidance and signposting, or promoting Queen Mary’s work. On this page, we outline how you can make your copy as accessible as possible. If you need any further guidance, please email content@qmul.ac.uk

Plain English

For formal and even less formal writing, we should always use Plain English. Not only does Plain English make our writing accessible to an international audience, but it also gets our point across quickly and clearly without sounding stuffy.

When we write in Plain English, we do the following:

  • Keep sentences as short as possible and vary sentence length.
  • Use the active voice rather than the passive.
  • Use ‘you’ and ‘we’ when referring to ourselves and when addressing our audience.
  • Don’t assume longer words are better than shorter ones.

Our House Style guide covers much of this and there’s further information provided on the Plain English Campaign website.

Headings and lists

Headings and lists are great for breaking up our content, making it more digestible and impactful. Headings are important for screen readers and are used to scan and navigate a page. Be generous with your headings; they should be descriptive and explain what the following paragraph will say.

If your content is effectively itemisation, then consider breaking it up into a list. Lists make it easier to scan for key information. Capitalise the first word in each point and keep the information succinct.

Avoiding acronyms and jargon

Always write an acronym in full on first use. This is so audience members using screen readers can hear it spelled out, plus the abbreviation. This is in part because some abbreviations are read out by screen readers as words, for instance ADD (attention deficit disorder), which can be confusing. So, it’s important to have the expanded version in your content too, for context.

Descriptive links

When used accessibly, links are an effective guidance tool and ideal for eliciting a certain action from our audience (eg downloads and sign-ups). Descriptive links are a must for audience members using a screen reader and need to describe what the call to action is. Therefore, we should avoid using text such as ‘click here’. Instead, spell out what will happen when a user clicks on a link.

As well as being accessible, descriptive links are helpful for people scanning a webpage, allowing them to navigate to what they’re looking for.

Don’t say:

  • Click here
  • Go to page
  • Learn more

Do say:

  • Find out more about [X]
  • Download a prospectus
  • Sign up for Open Day 

Resources

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