Communication and Marketing Guidance for the Visually Impaired

It’s essential to take the following points into account when communicating with blind and partially sighted people and in designing and writing marketing communications that are suitable for all.

• If you are giving directions to someone, then be specific and avoid pointing. For example, say "the access barrier is one metre away and it is directly in front of you", as opposed to "the access barrier is over there.” 
• Consider using the clock face system with description when communicating with people. For example, “The treadmill is at 10 o’clock and 2 metres away.”
• If you’re handing them equipment on a table, at reception or somewhere else, describe where it is and navigate their hand if necessary, only after asking permission. Let the person follow your arm down to the equipment and at no point pull someone towards equipment.  
• When describing something, try to give a clear word picture, including details such as colour, texture, shape and landmarks if applicable. This helps to build a picture of the environment that people are in.  
• If you are leaving the conversation, let the blind or partially sighted person know you are leaving. 

Image descriptions or alt text

An image description or Alt Text is a textual description of images that are present within digital material. An image description is generally a more detailed explanation of an image when compared to Alt Text.

Blind and partially sighted people may use screen readers to access digital content, which will read the image description or Alt Text out loud. Alt text and image descriptions can provide essential information such as text, links, and image details.

It is recommended that Alt Text be 125 characters or less with image descriptions being slightly longer.

Optimise the website

Websites are often the gateway for people to gather information about your products and services. It is therefore important that your website is as accessible as possible.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (known as WCAG 2.1) are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility and are based on four design principles:

• Perceivable: to make sure you can recognise it with the senses that you have.
• Operable: to make sure it can be used no matter how it is accessed.
• Understandable: to make sure the content is understandable.
• Robust: to make sure it can be interpreted widely by assistive technology.

The four design principles are intended to ensure that websites are created that focus on how people will interact with the content. For example, for blind and partially sighted people this may mean that the website:

• enables a screen reader to read the content to someone
• has different colour contrasts
• has bigger text
• enables voice commands to be used.

In order to advise your blind and partially sighted members and users, it’s important to be familiar with the inclusive access features that your website has.

Make the call to action accessible

If, through your website, newsletter or social media content, you require some further action from someone, make sure that this call to action is accessible. This might be registering for an exercise class or buying a membership.

Make sure that any online forms are laid out in a logical manner and clearly highlight what information is required by the user.

Audio description

Videos are a great way to launch new products or services to your customers. They are increasingly used in social media posts and within digital newsletters.

To make sure that your videos are accessible, consider creating an alternative inclusive version that includes audio description, the verbal description of the visual elements that appear in videos.

The aim of audio description is to provide verbal information on the visual content that is essential to understand what is on the screen. Often audio descriptions occur in sections of a video where there is no audio provided in the original video.

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