ADA & WCAG Accessibility: Start With Your Brand Standards
Accessibility has always been part of good design. Now, for government communicators in particular, it also needs to be part of the everyday communication process.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires state and local governments to provide equal access to their programs, services and activities. New federal requirements take that responsibility further by establishing WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for government websites, mobile apps and much of the digital content they provide to the public.
But accessibility isn't just a government issue.
Private companies also have responsibilities under the ADA, particularly businesses that are open to the public. Beyond the legal requirements, there is also a pretty basic reason to think about accessibility: you want people to be able to read, understand and use the information you're putting out into the world.
At Creative Entourage, we don't look at accessibility as something that happens at the very end of a project. Many of the decisions that affect accessibility are made much earlier — starting with your brand standards.
Accessibility Starts With Your Brand
Color is a good example.
A beautiful brand palette doesn't necessarily mean every combination of those colors is easy to read. Light blue type on a white background might look great, but it may not provide enough contrast for someone with low vision.
When Creative Entourage develops a brand identity, particularly for a municipality or public agency, we're thinking about how those colors will actually be used.
We establish primary and secondary colors, provide RGB, CMYK and HEX values and identify appropriate color combinations within the brand standards. We can also establish which color combinations meet WCAG contrast requirements and which combinations should be avoided.
This gives staff a much better starting point.
You shouldn't have to expect every employee creating a flyer or PowerPoint to understand contrast ratios. Instead, your brand standards can show them which combinations to use.
This becomes especially important for government organizations where dozens — or even hundreds — of employees may be creating presentations, flyers, social graphics, reports and other public-facing materials.
A good brand standards guide shouldn't just show your staff how to make something look "on brand." It should give them practical tools to communicate consistently and accessibly.
Your Font Standards Matter, Too
Typography is another important part of the conversation.
When we recommend brand fonts, we're not just looking at whether we like the font or whether it fits the personality of the brand. We also have to think about how it will actually work.
Is it readable? Does the font family give us enough options to create hierarchy? Is there an alternative available for employees working in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint? Will it work on the website as well as it does on a printed piece?
Those are practical considerations that belong in your brand standards.
We can establish recommended fonts, weights and uses for headlines, subheads and body copy. This gives staff some basic guardrails and helps maintain readability across communications.
Good Hierarchy Is Good Accessibility
This is where our team's extensive experience in publication and information design is especially valuable.
Hierarchy is really pretty simple:
What should I read first? What comes next? And where do I find the information I'm looking for?
We think about this constantly when designing annual reports, community guides, newsletters, brochures, websites, presentations and other information-heavy materials.
Clear headlines and subheads, readable typography, appropriate type sizes, logical organization, white space and consistent formatting all help guide someone through the information.
A 60-page annual report shouldn't feel like 60 pages of information fighting for your attention. A parks guide shouldn't make someone hunt for registration information. A public meeting notice shouldn't bury the date, time and location.
These are accessibility issues, but they're also just good graphic design.
Graphic designers have been thinking about readability, hierarchy and organization long before WCAG standards became part of our everyday conversations. The difference today is that we have specific technical standards that organizations need to meet.
Working with an experienced graphic designer gives you a much better starting point. A file that has been designed with clear hierarchy, paragraph styles and logical structure generally requires fewer adjustments than trying to make a poorly constructed document accessible after the fact.
Accessibility Can't Live With One Person
This is probably one of the biggest challenges for our government clients.
Your communications director may understand accessibility. Your web team may understand it. But they aren't the only people creating materials.
Someone in public works might create a flyer. Parks and recreation might build a PowerPoint. The city clerk might upload a PDF. An outside consultant might create a report that eventually gets posted to the website.
That's why accessibility can't live with one employee or one department.
This is also where good brand standards become more than a logo guide.
Brand standards can establish approved color combinations, typography guidelines, hierarchy and other basic rules staff can follow. Templates can take that even further by giving employees a properly designed starting point for presentations, reports, social graphics and other commonly used materials.
Brand standards won't solve every accessibility issue. Staff still need training and digital materials still need to be properly prepared and tested. But good standards can help prevent some of the most common problems from being created in the first place.
How Creative Entourage Helps
Accessibility is something we can build into the design services we're already providing our clients.
For a municipal branding project, that may mean testing the brand palette for contrast and documenting approved color combinations within the brand standards.
For an annual report or community guide, it means establishing clear hierarchy and building the document correctly from the beginning.
For digital documents, it can include proper structure, reading order and ALT text for meaningful images.
For websites, we're considering typography, contrast, buttons, links, images and how information is organized.
And for organizations with multiple employees creating communications, we can develop templates and guidelines that make it easier for staff to stay consistent.
Accessibility shouldn't be something you discover at the end of a project. A lot of it can be addressed before you ever start designing the first flyer, report or webpage.
For government agencies preparing for WCAG compliance requirements, your brand standards are a good place to start.
Take another look at your colors. Do you know which combinations meet contrast requirements? Does your staff know which combinations to use? Are your brand fonts readable and practical? Do employees have good templates to start from?
If you're not sure, Creative Entourage can review your existing brand standards and identify opportunities to make accessibility a stronger part of your overall communication system.
And if you're already considering a rebrand or brand refresh, accessibility should be part of that conversation from day one.
Please reach out and we will be happy to help you navigate this with you!
*This article provides general information about accessibility and design and is not intended as legal advice.
Please reach out and we will be happy to help you navigate this with you!