Accessibility for your clients
Everyone on a project needs to lead with accessibility in mind, including in client meetings, documentation, training materials, emails, and more.
Tip
When you're using hashtags, changing from lowercase to camelCase makes the hashtags more accessible.
Client meetings
Client meetings can take place virtually or in person. Alternatively, a meeting can be a hybrid version, where some people attend in person and others attend virtually. Meeting software, such as Microsoft Teams, offers many options to ensure that attendees have their accessibility needs met. If you're presenting by using Microsoft PowerPoint while in a Teams meeting, you can use the PowerPoint Live feature. This feature offers subtitles as you speak and real-time translations so that attendees who aren't native speakers of the presenting language can still understand the presenter.
Documentation and training materials
You might often give system documentation and training materials to your clients. When you create those artifacts, make sure that you create them with accessibility in mind from the beginning of the documentation process.
One consideration in this documentation is font choice. While no conclusive evidence exists of the readability of serif or sans serif fonts, you should choose a font that's easily readable, and your font selection should be consistent throughout all materials that you provide to your clients. Consider the delivery of the content and choose the correct font size. For example, a PowerPoint presentation that's shared on a large screen needs larger fonts than a Microsoft Word document of a training manual. Unless you have a specific purpose for doing so, you should avoid using script fonts and artistic fonts because they're often difficult to read. Screen readers can read these specialty fonts, but without a screen reader, the fonts can be difficult for some people who are reading on a screen or printed page.
If your documentation uses images or other visual elements, make sure that you include alternative text (alt text). Alt text provides a description of a visual element so that someone who is blind or has low vision can understand the image and its context.
Common programs, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, that you might use for client documentation offer user-friendly accessibility pointers to include as you're writing these documents. The results of the accessibility inspection offer details of what needs to be addressed, how to address it, and a direct link to the item within the document.
