11 minutes
Design so it arrives Headings, link text, alternative text, contrast and captions; what format choices quietly decide; and how translation and interpretation get planned at drafting time instead of the day before.
What you’ll be able to do Apply structural accessibility to a document, page or deck before it is sent, and plan translation, interpretation and community review into the drafting schedule rather than the last step. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What matters most to fix first? Document a next step for Design so it arrives: Run the ten-minute check on one page or document you own: headings pane, keyboard-only pass, link text read alone, contrast, and any text trapped inside an image. Structure is what makes content portable A well-structured document is one that can be taken apart and used in ways you did not plan. A screen reader can jump heading to heading. A person with low vision can enlarge it without the layout collapsing. A translator can work section by section without guessing what belongs together. A colleague can skim it in ninety seconds and find the part they need. None of that depends on how it looks; it depends on whether the structure is real.
Real means using the tools rather than imitating them. A heading made by making text big and bold is not a heading; it looks like one and behaves like nothing. A list made by typing dashes is not a list. A table used to line up a page layout tells a screen reader there is data where there is none. The fix takes seconds in the software you already use, and it is the single highest-value habit in this module.
Link text works the same way. Many people navigate by pulling up a list of the links in a page, which arrives stripped of the sentences around it. A page of links all reading “click here” or “more information” is a page of doors with no signs. Write the destination into the link: “read the service authorization summary” rather than “click here to read more.”
Four things people send, and what each one needs Email Web page Memo or report Slide deck
Put the ask in the first two lines, with the date and what you need. Use real headings if the message is long. Do not put the content in an attached image or a screenshot of a table. If an attachment matters, say what is in it. Long threads bury decisions; send the decision as its own message.
Real headings in order, short sections, link text that names the destination, alternative text on images that carry meaning, and no key information available only inside a PDF. If a document must be posted, post an accessible version and summarize the essentials on the page itself.
Lead with what changed, for whom and when. Headings that describe rather than number. Terms defined where they first appear. Tables for data, with header rows marked. A plain-language summary at the top costs a paragraph and reaches everyone who will never read page nine.
Slides are prompts, not the record. Text as text, not screenshots. One idea per slide, generous contrast, no information carried by color alone. Send the deck ahead to interpreters and captioners with a list of names and acronyms, and post an accessible version with the detail the slides left out.
A ten-minute check anyone can run Open the headings or navigation pane. If it is empty or the order jumps around, the headings are not real.
Put the mouse aside. Move through the page or document with the keyboard alone and watch whether you can see where you are and reach everything.
Read the link text on its own, away from its sentence. Does it say where it goes?
Look for text inside images and screenshots. Move it into real text, and write alternative text for images that carry meaning.
Check contrast between text and background, and whether anything depends on color alone to be understood.
For anything recorded, confirm captions exist and are accurate, and that a transcript is available.
Read the first paragraph as someone who has never heard of your program. If it does not say what this is and what to do, rewrite it.
Language access is decided while you draft Translation is often treated as a final step: finish the document, hand it over, wait. That sequence produces late, expensive and often inaccurate translated versions, because the source text was never written to be translated. Idioms, long stacked clauses, undefined program terms and unexplained acronyms all break in translation, and a translator with no context will produce something fluent and wrong.
Writing translation-ready English costs nothing and improves the English version too. Keep sentences short and one idea to a sentence. Define a program term at first use. Avoid idioms and sports metaphors. Avoid acronyms, or spell them out and keep a list. Leave room in the layout, because many languages run longer than English. Then plan the calendar: vital documents need time for translation and for review by people who speak the language and know the program, and that review is expert work that should be paid.
Interpreters need the same foresight. Send the agenda, slides, names and terms in advance; tell them the format and who is speaking; and build in pauses. A staff member who speaks quickly through a dense slide has not been interpreted so much as summarized.
There is a habit worth naming here. Treating everyone identically — one version, one format, one channel, because that feels fair — is the most common way a well-meaning unit excludes people. It is what minimization looks like in daily practice: the differences are real, but the design does not see them. Adapting the form of a message while keeping its substance intact is what moves the work toward acceptance and adaptation.
Helps the message arrive, or blocks it? Headings applied with the heading styles, in order.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message The key dates shown only in a screenshot of a spreadsheet.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message Link text that names the destination page.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message Light grey body text on a white background.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message A term list and the agenda sent to interpreters three days ahead.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message Required steps marked only by a red highlight.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message A plain-language summary at the top of a technical report.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message A recorded briefing posted with automatic captions nobody corrected.
Choose a category Helps the message arrive Blocks the message Check matches Reset Small rules worth memorizing What makes a heading a heading?
Using the heading style, not making text large and bold. Real headings create the structure people navigate by and translators work from.
What belongs in alternative text?
What the image conveys in this context, in a sentence. If the image is decorative, mark it as decorative. If it contains text, move that text into the document.
What is wrong with “click here”?
Many people pull up the links alone, without the surrounding sentence. Link text has to name where it goes on its own.
Why avoid color as the only cue?
Color alone is invisible to some readers and disappears in print, on a projector and in high-contrast settings. Pair it with text or a symbol readers can name.
What do interpreters need in advance?
The agenda, the slides, the names, the acronyms and the specialized terms, several days ahead. Advance materials are the difference between interpretation and improvisation.
What makes text translation-ready?
Short sentences, one idea each, defined terms, no idioms, few acronyms, and enough calendar time for translation and paid community review.
Private reflection, kept by you: in the last thing you designed or sent, who could have been helped, burdened, excluded or misunderstood — and whose expertise was missing from the room while it was being written?
Carry this forward Structure is not decoration. Real headings, short sections, genuine lists, meaningful link text and data tables are what let a screen reader, a skimming reader and a translator all use the same document.
Format decides which tools a reader may bring. Text inside an image cannot be read aloud, enlarged cleanly, searched or translated; a scanned document is a picture of information.
Language access is a drafting decision. Short sentences, defined terms, no idioms, and enough calendar time for translation and community review determine whether a translated version is accurate or merely exists.
Interpreters and captioners are colleagues with a job to do. Materials, names, acronyms and the agenda in advance are the difference between interpretation and improvisation.
Writing the same way for every audience can feel fair and land as exclusion. Adapting the form of a message while keeping its substance intact is the move from minimization toward adaptation.
A scenario about preparing a public engagement session, sorting practice on structure that helps and structure that blocks, and a knowledge check on alternative text and link wording.
Run the ten-minute check on one page or document you own: headings pane, keyboard-only pass, link text read alone, contrast, and any text trapped inside an image.
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Previous lesson Next lesson Carry this into practice What you write is what most people will ever meet of this work. Four lessons on words, structure, format and timing, ending with one real revision.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
