Accessible content

We need to make sure our content can be used by as many people as possible.

This includes people with:

• impaired vision
• motor difficulties
• cognitive impairments or learning disabilities
• deafness or impaired hearing

Public sector bodies must ensure their websites and apps are accessible to people with disabilities. This is enforceable in Ireland, by law, through the European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020.

Under this law, all content published on our websites has to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard as a minimum.

Our accessibility guidelines for digital content are based on these standards.

This means the content we publish has to meet:

• the needs of our users
• accessibility standards
• our legal obligations

Content on HSE websites must be published as HTML web pages and not in PDF format, where possible. This will mean our content can be used by as many people as possible, including people with disabilities.

Do not embed text in an image. Screen readers cannot read it.

Images can create major barriers when they are not accessible. To be accessible, they must have alt text (text alternative) that describes the information or function represented by them.

Contact digital@hse.ie if you would like more guidance about writing alt text.

All video and audio controls should be accessible with a keyboard.

Refer to the HSE video guidelines - from production to publication.

Pre-recorded video and audio

All pre-recorded video and audio content must have:

• captions (subtitles)
• an audio description - if the audio does not present the necessary visual content

Captions are often called subtitles. They are text versions of speech and other important audio content.

Audio descriptions describe content that is presented only visually - for example, diagrams without a verbal description. They can be included in the main audio track, in another audio track or as a text transcript.

Creating captions for pre-recorded video content.

Live video

Captions must be provided for all live audio content in videos. For a speech, they must include dialogue, identify who is speaking and notate sound effects and other significant audio.

Plain language benefits all users, including people:

• with cognitive disabilities
• with low reading literacy
• whose first language is not English
• who are trying to understand a topic for the first time

Use simple language and formatting with short, clear sentences and paragraphs.

A page title helps users find what they want and recognise if they're in the right place. It can be the first thing a screen reader will read out when the user visits a page. Page titles also appear in sitemaps. The title is the text link that appears in search results.

The H1 is the same as the page title. You should have only one H1 on a page.

Each page title must be unique.

Headings and subheadings

Headings should be styled properly using HTML <H> tags. People who use screen readers often use them to navigate. They jump through the list of headings in a document so they can skip to the content they’re looking for.

If you style headings just using bold text, or by using a bigger font, screen readers will not recognise them as headings. This will stop users from skipping straight to the content they need.

Headers should always be nested and consecutive. Never skip a header level for styling reasons,

The types of headings are:

• H1 = title of page
• H2 = subheadings
• H3 = sub-subheadings

Directional language

Do not use instructions or any language that prompts the reader to ‘see’ the layout or design of the page. Some users can’t see the spatial relationships between words and objects.

Don’t say things like ‘use the links on the right-hand side’ or ‘see image above’.

Links or buttons need to make sense out of context because people who use screen readers often scan through lists of links in isolation. They do not have the surrounding context to help them understand what the link is for.

This means it is important that a link should clearly describe where it will take you. Ideally, link text should match the heading of the target page.

Using link text like ‘click here’, ‘more information’ or including the link URL address does not meet accessibility standards.

Other languages links

If a web page includes links to versions of the page in other languages, the text of each link should contain the name of the language and be written in that language.

Colour should not be used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.

Good colour contrast helps people with vision impairment and cognitive impairments to better perceive content on the page.

Non-text contrast

There should be a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent colours for visual presentations for:

• user interface components
• states (focus, hover, select, press, check, visited or unvisited and expand or collapse)
• graphical objects

Text contrast

The visual presentation of plain text and images of text should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 except for large-scale text and images of large-scale text.