Many guides to web writing talk about how people tend to read webpages in an ‘F’ pattern – reading the first paragraph or two, then skimming quickly down the left-hand side of the content.
For this reason, web writers are advised to
- load important information at the top of the page
- write clear and informative headings
- be clear and succinct.
But what happens when the reader is vision impaired?
This week, I sat with Alison, a person with vision impairment, as she explored a website.
It turns out that the advice on how to write for webpages becomes even more important when your audience uses a screen reader.
It’s all about saving time.
Reading aloud takes time
The key thing to remember is that reading text aloud takes far more time than reading on screen. For people with vision impairment, anything that saves time and speeds the process is a good idea.
The advice that will make a page more readable for sighted users, will also make things faster for users with vision impairment.
Load important information at the top of the page
Using the screen reader, Alison would listen to a few sentences at the top of a page to see if the page had what she wanted. She liked pages that had key or summary information at the top.
So, the most important information should be in the first two paragraphs, or at least be compelling enough to make people want to keep reading.
Write clear and informative headings
The screen reader was able to just read out the headings on a page, to allow Alison to get a quick idea of what else was on the page. She could then go directly to the section she needed, instead of waiting for the reader to read out everything on the page, line by line.
So headings, subheadings paragraphs and lists should be clear and start with keywords that users will notice as they listen.
Be clear and succinct
Alison praised sites that had clear, short sentences and paragraphs. If the language was dense, she sometimes had to listen again to find the meaning; if the text was repetitive or waffly, she had to sit through it all.
So, write in plain English, using the active voice and simple words that people can relate to.