Originally published July 2021. Updated October 2026.

Over the last 10 years I have gained a lot of insight into making content that is clearly accessible to the visually impaired.

When I started working with several organisations including Brightlife, Age Friendly Cheshire, Social Butterflies and Age-UK Cheshire on their marketing and information booklets. It became part of my job to ensure their clients were able to access the content I created.

Many of their clients were over 55, and as we get older, we’re more likely to experience deterioration in our eyesight. It was vital to ensure the content was designed with this in mind. Of course, these organisations had guidelines, but I also did a lot of research into this myself.

And it’s not just older people who might struggle to access visual content. People can be born with impaired or restricted vision, or experience sight loss through accidents or illness at any age.

There are also all sorts of other conditions that can affect someone’s ability to access visual information, including dyslexia, dementia, colour vision deficiency, ADHD and other neurological differences.

I came to understand that it’s not for us as business owners or content creators to decide whether someone might want to access our content or not. We should try to make that as easy as possible for everyone.

And the lovely thing is that making content more accessible generally makes it easier for everyone to read, understand and engage with. Even people with 20/20 vision who are just busy, tired or trying to read something on their phone in bright sunlight!

The good news is that there are some really simple things you can do to improve the visual accessibility of your content, whether that’s a website, social media graphic, presentation or printed leaflet.

MAKING FONTS ACCESSIBLE

Font selection obviously plays a huge role in making your content accessible.

1. Make sure your text is big enough

It might seem pretty obvious, but making your fonts BIG enough is an easy first step.

In my original article, I recommended a minimum of 12pt for printed text. While that’s a reasonable starting point for some printed materials, there isn’t one magic font size that works for every situation.

For printed information aimed at older audiences, I often work with larger text, around 14pt or more where appropriate. But the font itself, the weight, the spacing and the way the content is laid out all make a difference.

For websites, 16px is a common starting point for body text, but it’s important that people can resize it without losing information or functionality.

And for social media graphics, think about where people are going to be viewing them. Something that looks perfectly readable on your big computer screen might be almost impossible to read on a mobile phone.

My tip? Before publishing, look at your design at the size people will actually see it. If you have to squint to read it, chances are someone else will struggle too!

2. Choose the right font style

It’s easy to be seduced by a fancy font, but these can be a nightmare for readability.

Script and handwritten fonts can look lovely, and they certainly have their place, but they’re generally better kept for large titles or the odd decorative word rather than important information or large blocks of text.

For body copy, a clear serif or sans serif font is usually a better choice. And don’t assume that all sans serif fonts are automatically more accessible than serif fonts. It’s much more about how clearly the individual letters can be distinguished.

Think about font weight too. Very thin fonts might look elegant, but they can be difficult to read, particularly at smaller sizes.

And try not to use too many different fonts. Establishing a clear hierarchy for your headings, subheadings and body copy helps people understand the information and makes your content look more consistent too.

MAKING COLOURS ACCESSIBLE

There are some simple factors to consider to make sure your use of colours is accessible to the visually impaired.

3. Make sure there’s enough contrast

You may have worked really hard on your brand colours, or you might be working with already established brand guidelines, but being mindful of how you layer and combine colours can make a big difference to accessibility.

For digital content, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal-sized text and 3:1 for large text.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to work these out yourself!

I use a handy tool called Colour Contrast which allows you to compare two colours and check whether they meet accessibility requirements.

Why not give your own brand colours a try?

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that not every colour in your brand palette needs to work with every other colour.

For example, I worked on a charity brand that used bright orange and royal blue. They were lovely, vibrant colours, but the orange wasn’t suitable for smaller text on white backgrounds.

Rather than getting rid of the orange, I introduced a dark navy for text and a pale blue for backgrounds. This gave the brand more flexibility without losing its personality.

These days, I recommend including a set of approved colour combinations in your brand guidelines so you know which colours work together and which combinations to avoid.

It makes creating content so much easier because you’re not having to check everything from scratch each time.

4. Be careful with white text on dark backgrounds

In my original article, I recommended avoiding white text on dark backgrounds altogether, particularly for large blocks of text.

I’ve softened my opinion on this over the years!

Dark backgrounds aren’t necessarily inaccessible. In fact, some people find light text on a dark background much more comfortable to read.

However, for other people, particularly those with certain visual conditions, light text on dark backgrounds can appear to blur or glow, making it more difficult to read.

So it’s worth considering how you’re using these combinations.

For large blocks of text, a light background with dark text is often a good starting point, but dark backgrounds can work perfectly well too, provided the text has sufficient contrast, a readable font and plenty of breathing room.

And if you’re designing a website, allowing people to choose between light and dark modes can be really helpful.

5. Don’t rely on colour alone

In my original article, I advised against layering complementary colours such as yellow and purple, orange and blue, or red and green.

But the issue isn’t really whether colours are complementary. It’s whether there’s enough contrast between them and whether people can distinguish the information you’re trying to communicate.

For example, red and green can be difficult to tell apart for people with certain types of colour vision deficiency.

It’s also important not to use colour as the only way of communicating something.

If you’re using green to show something is correct and red to show something is wrong, add a tick or cross too.

Or if you’re creating a chart, use labels or patterns as well as different colours.

And please don’t think that making your content accessible means everything has to be black text on a white background!

You can absolutely have a bright, colourful, personality-filled brand. It’s about making conscious decisions about where and how you use those colours.

There are a few things to consider about layouts that you might not have thought of….

MAKING LAYOUTS ACCESSIBLE

There are a few things to consider about layouts that you might not have thought of.

6. Left-aligned text is generally easier to read

Less obvious, and a mistake I’ve made with my own social media graphics in the past, is centre-aligning large blocks of text.

It might look ‘neater’ or more well designed, but it can make reading much harder. When text is centred, every line starts in a different place, so your eyes have to work harder to find the beginning of the next line This can be particularly challenging for some people with dyslexia, visual impairments or cognitive difficulties.

Left-aligned text creates a consistent starting point for each line, making it easier to follow.

That’s not to say you should never centre-align anything! A short heading, quote or social media graphic with just a few words can work perfectly well centred. But for paragraphs and longer pieces of information, left-aligned text is generally the better choice for content written in English.

And avoid fully justified text where possible too, as the uneven spaces between words can make it harder to read.

7. Avoid placing text over busy imagery

Overlapping text and imagery can be really disruptive for people with visual impairments and some learning or processing difficulties. They can find it hard to distinguish the letters from the background details, so it’s best avoided.

Use design details and imagery to reinforce your message, not interfere with it!

If you really want to put text over a photograph, try adding a solid or semi-transparent panel behind the text, or choosing an area of the image with very little detail. Just make sure there’s still enough contrast between the text and whatever sits behind it.

And remember, less is often more.

It’s tempting to fill every bit of space on a social media graphic, especially when you’ve got lots to say, but leaving some breathing room around your text can make a huge difference to readability.

If you’ve got too much information to fit comfortably onto one graphic, perhaps it would work better as a carousel, or you could put the extra information in your caption instead.

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO…

8. Use alt text and image descriptions

Alt text is something that started with web design but is now an important part of making social media content accessible too. It’s a short description of an image that allows people using screen readers to understand the information or purpose of that image.

When I originally wrote this article, I admitted that I had quite a backlog of images on my own website that needed alt text adding. It’s one of those things that’s so much easier to do as you go along rather than having to go back through hundreds of images afterwards!

The important thing to remember is that good alt text isn’t necessarily a description of absolutely everything in an image. It’s about communicating the information that matters in the context of the content.

For example, if you have a photograph of yourself speaking at an event, you might write:

Sally speaking to an audience at a business networking event.

You probably don’t need to describe every chair, table or person in the room unless those details are relevant.

If your social media graphic contains important text, make sure that information is accessible too. Where possible, include the important information in the accompanying caption rather than relying entirely on text embedded in an image.

And don’t confuse alt text with an image description added to the bottom of a caption.

Alt text is attached to the image itself and can be read by assistive technology. Image descriptions in captions are visible to everyone and can be useful too, but they don’t automatically replace properly written alt text.

Decorative images that don’t add any meaningful information can usually be marked as decorative on websites so screen readers can skip them.

You can find more guidance about writing alt text in this Microsoft Support article.

Small changes really can make a difference

So that’s my round-up of eight simple ways to make your content more visually accessible.

If you’ve got this far and realised there are a few things you could be doing differently, please don’t feel you need to go back and redesign every piece of content you’ve ever created!

Start with one thing. Maybe it’s checking your brand colour combinations, increasing your font sizes or making sure the important information in your graphics is also in your captions.

Something I’ve become increasingly aware of over the years is how much easier it is to build accessibility into your brand from the beginning, rather than constantly trying to fix things afterwards.

Having a clear set of brand guidelines that includes accessible colour combinations, font choices and layout principles means you’re making those decisions once, rather than every time you create something new.

I’ve written more about the other elements that make a brand work in What Does a Great Brand Need… As Well as a Logo?.

And remember, making your content more accessible doesn’t mean sacrificing your brand’s personality. You can still have beautiful, colourful, creative designs. You just need to be a little more intentional about how you put them together.

Want to make your own content more visually accessible?

If you’d like to understand how to make your content easier for more people to see, read and engage with, take a look at my Visual Advantage mini-course.

I’ll walk you through the practical design decisions that make a difference, without needing to become a designer or an accessibility expert yourself.