{"id":20939,"date":"2024-12-16T11:34:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T16:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webservices\/?page_id=20939"},"modified":"2025-06-09T08:20:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T12:20:43","slug":"make-text-clear-concise-and-legible","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/make-text-clear-concise-and-legible\/","title":{"rendered":"Make information clear, concise, and legible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Make information clear, concise, and legible\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"accessibility\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accessibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Text information must be clear and concise. It should be broken down visually to help not overwhelm the user. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"reason\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reason<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Creating clear and concise content helps different kinds of users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Users with a learning difficulty<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Users with a neurodevelopmental disorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Anyone using a screen reader who wants to work their way through the text on a page quickly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Anyone else!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all initiatives in accessibility, creating clear and concise text helps <em class=\"myprefix-text-italic\">every<\/em>body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"best-practice\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When writing for the web try to follow a few basic principles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>limit the number of words in your sentences<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>limit the number of sentences in your paragraphs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>limit the number of paragraphs in you page<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>break up content where possible with bullet points where several related items are presented<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>introduce a numbered list if there are several items that are a series of steps<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>use fonts which are easy to read.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Try to break up sentences where there is a conjunction. For instance, you could create two sentences from one long like the following example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em class=\"myprefix-text-italic\">Try to break up sentences where there is a conjunction so you don&#8217;t end up with one long sentence but rather end up with two, shorter, more manageable sentences. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take a moment to <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webservices\/ecommerce\/\">view a good example of a page with succinct, well-presented text<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"example-of-less-accessible-practices\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Example of less accessible practices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Please <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/sample-page-keep-content-clear-concise-and-easy-to-access\/\">see the example page<\/a> we have built to show what the same content looks like when poorly presented.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"additional-benefits\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional benefits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong class=\"myprefix-text-bold\">Usability<\/strong>: Clear and concise content is much easier for anyone to read.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong class=\"myprefix-text-bold\">SEO<\/strong>: Search engines love succinct writing &#8211; it makes it much easier to discern if a page is about a specific topic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong class=\"myprefix-text-bold\">Marketing<\/strong>: When people have an easy time reading a page it leaves a great impression. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-wcag-says\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What WCAG says<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>WCAG has a more complete list of ways to improve text on a page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Write in short, clear sentences and paragraphs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid using unnecessarily complex words and phrases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Expand acronyms on first use. For example, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider providing a glossary for terms readers may not know.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use list formatting as appropriate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider using images, illustrations, video, audio, and symbols to help clarify meaning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(Be sure to <a href=\"https:\/\/app.pope.tech\/result-documentation\">learn more about errors and alerts<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From WCAG:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Copy and paste excerpt from WCAG here.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/WAI\/WCAG21\/Understanding\/link-purpose-in-context.html#intent\">Learn more about WCAG says about this issue<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accessibility Text information must be clear and concise. It should be broken down visually to help not overwhelm the user. Reason Creating clear and concise content helps different kinds of users. Like all initiatives in accessibility, creating clear and concise text helps everybody. Best practice When writing for the web try to follow a few [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21245,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[18,14,25,23],"class_list":["post-20939","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_page_type-accessibility","cu_page_type-general","cu_page_type-homepage-featured","cu_page_type-text-and-hyperlinks"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20939"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21340,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20939\/revisions\/21340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/webaccessibility\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=20939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}