The Nonprofit Website Insider

Think holistically about inclusiveness: readable information, inclusive forms, support for neurodivergence, accessibility, and more

Making your website inclusive involves more than just adjusting font sizes and screen colors (although these aspects are important too!). To create a truly welcoming website for all visitors, there’s a lot to consider, including easily readable information, inclusive forms, support for neurodivergence, and all the things that fall under the category of "website accessibility."

There's an ever-increasing amount of information available on these topics, which is fantastic – but sifting through it all can be overwhelming."which is great – but sifting through it can also be overwhelming. In this issue, I've compiled some of the best articles to help you think through your own strategy.

Who am I? I’m Laura S. Quinn, a consultant with 25+ years of helping nonprofits with websites. I help staff as a Website Coach + Guide, and to define Website Strategies. 

Enjoy the issue!

Laura

A practical roadmap to website accessibility (Laura S. Quinn Consulting)
If you’re not sure if your website is accessible, then it probably needs some work. Improving it isn't a simple task, but I suggest a two-part method to create your own roadmap. First, look at your content, pictures, and processes. Then, define a project to address the technical parts of website accessibility, which are often hard even to audit. This article tells you how.

What makes writing more readable?  (The Pudding)
Don’t miss this —it’s fascinating. It’s a great article that uses its own content as a case study, allowing you to toggle between typical article language and plain language best practices, paragraph by paragraph. A terrific link to send to collaborators as an example of plain language in practice. 

You don’t need to be “the boss” to be a leader (Harvard Business Review)
It's rare that website inclusiveness happens because it's dictated from the top. You can be the one to lead that change. This Harvard Business Review article— one of their most popular of last year — talks through ways to lead from where you are.

Create accessible and inclusive forms (NTEN)
This is an illuminating and really funny overview from Allison Manley of why effectively designed forms are a critical piece of inclusiveness (“Some forms ask for your title: Esquire, Professor, Doctor, even Captain! I’m trying to donate to your fundraiser, not pilot your ship! )

Recruiting niche demographics for user research (Econsultancy)
One of the mainstays of designing is that your key audiences should have a say in what you build on their behalf. If one of your audiences is more likely to have disabilities (the elderly, for instance, or those with autism) there are absolutely ways to find those people to get their thoughts.  

Avoid FAQs (PlainLanguage.gov)
It’s really easy to create pages in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) format. Unfortunately, it’s really hard for your visitors to parse and understand them. This article is a good overview of the problem, and how to begin to turn your FAQs into more useful content.

Neurodiversity and designing for difference (Content Design London)
What does it mean to  design for neurodiversity? Content Design London looks at steps we can take to make content more accessible to more people.

PDFs vs. web pages: what's better for users? (Lauren Pope)
Spoiler alert: web pages, by a landslide. All organizations should be trying to move away from PDFs for most things — Lauren Pope tells you why.

Accessibility for non-developers: a resource list (Stephanie Walter)
Is there anything else you ever wanted to know about accessibility? Stephanie Walter has the queen of all link lists, incredibly well organized and thorough.