SCULPT is an acronym developed by Worcestershire council which covers key principles of accessible design: Structure, Colour & Contrast, Use of Links, Plain Text and Table Structure.
By considering these principles whilst creating digital resources, or anything that will eventually be hosted online, we can ensure that they are accessible to a wider audience.
Find out more information about SCULPT by Worcestershire Council
Structure:
Often when creating documents, we rely on visual differences in order to provide structure, e.g. larger and underlined text to show a heading/sub-heading. However, assistive technologies such as screen readers are unable to differentiate these visual differences, meaning the user misses out on this context.
Therefore, when creating materials you should use the headings style tool to differentiate headings from regular text. This will ensure assistive technologies can identify headings and structure within a document and this will be highlighted to users who rely on assistive technologies.
Colour and Contrast:
It is important to consider how colour is being used when creating resources and also the level of contrast between different colours.
For example, if colour is being used as the only way of conveying information, users who can not differentiate between these colours may be unable to understand this.
To avoid this, there should be an alternative method that presents this information, rather than just colour.
Contrast can also be an issue for many users, and not just those with visual impairments. Therefore, it is best to use colours with high contrast where possible. For text, in most circumstances, however not all, it is best to use dark text on a light background, and to avoid using pastel colours.
Use of Images:
Users with visual impairments are often unable to see content that is being presented in images, and screen readers are unable to describe what is being shown in an image without alternative text.
Alternative text, or alt text, is a brief description of the image (usually 1-2 sentences long) that allows the screen reader to describe the image to the user. Alt text is not visible to anyone other than those using assistive technologies. In most cases you can add alternative text by right clicking on an image and ‘edit alt. Text’.
When possible it is also best not to have text within an image, as this is not picked up by screen readers. If this is unavoidable, it is recommended to also have the same information in text on the document.
Links:
Inaccessible hyperlinks are a common accessibility issue within documents. The most common issue is overly long links, which screen readers will read out letter by letter. This can be extremely time consuming. Another common issues is links that are too vague and offer little context as to where they are redirecting to, such as ‘click here’.
Instead, links should be embedded into descriptive text. This ensures that the links are not too long and that they offer a clear explanation to where the link is redirecting the user.
Plain Text:
When possible it is best to write in plain English for your audience. This means avoiding unnecessarily complex language, sentence structure and jargon wherever possible. This will ensure that as many users as possible can engage with your resources.
Table structure:
Tables should be used for displaying data, not for creating page or document layouts.
Keep tables simple and accessible by using clear column headers and avoiding complex features like split cells, merged cells, or nested tables. This makes the information easier to read and understand.
