Understandable Content

Web accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all. Learn about the impact of accessibility and the benefits for everyone in a variety of situations.

Video on Understandable Content

This video information is available as a Text Transcript with Description of Visuals below.

What is “Understandable Content”?

Content must be easy to follow and understand for many users. For most content, this means simply avoiding overly complex sentences and jargon, and providing clear layout and design. For some complex content such as medical information, separate, easy-to-read information may be necessary.

Who depends on this feature?

What are the additional benefits?

What needs to happen for this to work?

Avoid overly complex words, jargon, and acronyms, or provide explanations when they need to be used. Provide structure using headings, lists, and spacing. Provide illustrations that clarify the content, when helpful. Provide clear layout and design with consistent orientation and navigation cues.

Learn more

Text Transcript with Description of Visuals

Audio Visual
Web Accessibility Perspectives: Understandable Content Web Accessibility Perspectives:
Understandable Content
Instead of saying: "To postulate a conceit more irksome than being addressed in sesquipedalian syntax is adamantine",
it is better to say: "Being spoken to in unnecessarily long and complicated language is a pain".
Two people are trying to follow instructions on a cooking website using lots of text with no illustrations or structure.
Yet many websites lack structuring using headings, lists and separation. Or they use overly complex language, jargon, and unexplained acronyms. They are looking up words in a dictionary to understand the recipe.
It makes them difficult and unappealing to use for many people, including non-native speakers, and makes them unusable for people with cognitive and learning disabilities. They are confused and frustrated by the website.
Web accessibility: Essential for some, useful for all. They search and find a different cooking website with more structured text and illustrations.
Visit w3.org/WAI/perspectives for more information on Understandable Content Visit
w3.org/WAI/perspectives
for more information on
Understandable Content.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative logo
Back to Top