1. Use the Provided Styles in the Content Editor
2. Select an Appropriate Way to Emphasize Text
3. Use Descriptive Text When Creating Hyperlinks

Use the Provided Styles in the Content Editor to Add Headings ("Structure Before Style")

Organize your content into sections and introduce each section with a heading. This will break up your content to make it easier to read, quick to navigate, and navigable by assistive devices. Add this structure to your content before you start adding bold text, colored text, changing type size, using the highlighter function, or changing fonts. If you're unsure of what to put in your headings, think about an outline of your content, and name them how you would each section of your outline.

To add your headings, use the "styles" provided by your content editor. These styles correspond with the way text is organized and styled on websites and should be used in documents too. For example, the Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) includes a drop-down menu on the left side, Microsoft Word has a Styles Pane in the ribbon toolbar, and Google Docs includes a "Styles" drop-down to the left of "fonts".

Sequence Your Headings

Use headings in order from H1 to H4. Use an outline structure, as shown below. Never skip a heading level; H2 is only used after first using H1, H3 is only used after an H2 heading, and so on.

What if I don't like how many headings look?

You can still manually adjust the appearance of a heading as long as it's still marked as a heading in the styles menu. In Microsoft Word, you may select a different style set by going to the Design tab, or you can create and save a style of your own.

Using headings at all and in order is necessary for users of assistive technology to navigate the digital content. In the following video, you can see examples of how a screen reader reads emphasized text out loud to the user. 

Select an Appropriate Way to Emphasize Text

The following text styles are common ways for creators of digital content to emphasize text in order from the best, most accessible option, to the worst option.

Correct Emphasis Options:

• Bold text is easy to read and visible to assistive devices.
• Use italics sparingly. While italicized text is indicated to assistive devices, it can be difficult to read for some and is used in many citation styles to note the titles of resources.

Incorrect Emphasis Options:

• Colored text and highlighted text are not sufficient because they're typically not communicated to readers using assistive devices.
  • You can use color, but only if you first apply bold or italics, so that color isn't the only way the text is being emphasized.
  • Also, color must achieve or surpass the required color contrast ratio. Use the content editor’s accessibility checker or WebAim’s Contrast Checker to check color contrast.
• Avoid using ALL CAPS. This formatting is not communicated to readers using assistive devices and can be difficult to read for people with dyslexia and other language disorders. Some consider it to appear aggressive, as if the writer were yelling. It also can interfere with the correct display of digital type.
• Avoid using Underlined text. This formatting should be reserved for hyperlinks.

Remember to emphasize text sparingly. If everything is emphasized, then nothing is. And text styles are not a replacement for page structure, like organized headings, though they can be added to an organized page to make it even more useful for your readers.

Also, you'll notice the incorrect options listed above are available in some of your commonly used applications, like Canvas and Microsoft Word. You should still avoid using them. If you need additional ways to emphasize your text beyond bold and italics, consider rewriting your content slightly or applying more headings to call attention to important parts of your content.

Use Descriptive Text When Inserting Hyperlinks

Follow these steps when adding a hyperlink to digital content.

Use descriptive text to inform the reader what you're linking to.

Link text should be meaningful and descriptive, indicating the purpose or destination of the link. The incorrect example below suggests the link is a great resource, but doesn't tell the user where they're being directed, or the topic of that resource.

• Correct: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.
• Correct: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards: "WCAG 2 Overview."
• Incorrect: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.

Avoid using full URLs as hyperlinks.

These are hard to read, break up the flow of your content, are not descriptive, and are prohibitive for screen readers to read correctly.

• Correct: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.
• Incorrect: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag

Avoid using uninformative link phrases.

This is redundant and makes your text harder to read. Keep it simple!

• Correct: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.
• Incorrect: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards: Click here to read the web accessibility standards.

Links should appear as the content editor's style intends. Do not emphasize it in any other way.

For example, the correctly-formatted link below uses this site's default hyperlink formatting, but the incorrectly-formatted example uses color to emphasize the link differently than other links.

• Correct: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.
• Incorrect: A great resource for digital content authors to refer to is the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.

Provide context for your links.

Even if your links are descriptive, you may still want to add text before the link that introduces why you're including it and text after that builds on that information.

For example, include detailed instructions for students when inserting hyperlinks. Explain what the resource is, if it is required or suggested material for the course, if there are any special instructions for accessing the resource, and how it connects to the course and that week's topic.

Need help using links correctly?

For more information, please visit WebAim's guide on creating hyperlinks.