To ensure the greatest consumer awareness and retail coverage for your items, format content to help shoppers with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities find what they're looking for.
Recommendations for making your content accessible to users with disabilities are listed below.
- Minimize/eliminate text that is embedded in an image. This text cannot be read by screen readers. For text on product packaging, include this text elsewhere, such as the Product Description Page (PDP).
- Include important item information on the PDP as text. Details such as dimensions, health claims, features, ingredients, and other specific attributes should be included as text.
- Include Alt text where prompted. These short alternative descriptions (100 characters) can be included with any web image. Alt text is displayed as a means to describe images when a screen reader is in use, or when images cannot otherwise be viewed. Adding Alt text allows authors to keep images in a design and still provide content in an accessible format.
- Use descriptive text in calls to action. "Learn More" isn't always clear. "Learn how to care for your product" helps the reader understand the context.
- Consider color contrast. WCAG 2.0, Level AA, requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text, and at least 3:1 for graphics and user interface components. You can check your contrast here.
- Videos should not include embedded text. Similar to photos, videos cannot be translated by screen readers.
- Include closed captions and transcripts. Closed captions are timed transcriptions of audio files. Transcripts are complete translations of a video's audio content. Transcripts further differ from closed captions in that they include language describing what's happening in a video (e.g., "outside in a park" may describe a video's setting). WebVTT format is designed to provide closed captions and transcripts for video content.
- Ensure PDFs are accessible when they are created. Your PDF-creation software can help you address accessibility issues, such as a missing document description of title. The software identifies and shows you elements that may require further action.
- Upload your PDFs. Once your PDF is accessible, simply upload it as another Enhanced Content asset. Be sure to add a caption (used as Alt text) for your PDF. This is the same process as that for images.
