Internal Communication Audit: Accessibility Focus

Accessibility in Internal Communication

• Accessibility is a crucial aspect of internal communication that ensures all stakeholders can understand and engage with the organization's communication processes, tools, and practices.

Types of Accessibility

• Visual Accessibility:
  • Use alternative text (alt text) for images
  • Format content for screen readers
  • Consider font, font size, and color contrast
• Hearing Accessibility:
  • Provide transcripts and captions for video content
• Cognitive Accessibility:
  • Present content in multiple ways (e.g., visual, auditory, text)
  • Use consistent webpage navigation
  • Edit out unnecessary content
• Motor Accessibility:
  • Make comms accessible via voice recognition and keyboard commands
  • Use well-spaced and large links to assist stakeholders with fine motor control
• Mobile Accessibility:
  • Design and scale content for mobile devices
• Language Accessibility:
  • Use vocabulary and style understood by stakeholders
  • Translate comms into languages spoken by internal stakeholders (if possible)

Internal Communication Audit

• Surveys are a great way to get honest feedback from employees while avoiding power and relationship dynamics concerns
• Important considerations for conducting surveys:
  • Prioritize questions (need to know, want to know, would like to know)
  • Avoid starting with demographic questions
  • Ask demographic questions only if relevant to internal comms strategy
  • Include a "prefer not to answer" option
  • Keep surveys short (less than 10 minutes)
  • Vary question types to avoid fatigue

Internal Communication Audit and Accessibility

• Conducting an internal communication audit should include assessing the accessibility of communication processes, tools, and practices for internal stakeholders.

Accessibility Considerations

• Ensure Visual Accessibility by:

  • Using alternative text (alt text) for images
  • Formatting content for screen readers
  • Considering font, font size, and color contrast

• Ensure Hearing Accessibility by:

  • Providing transcripts and captions for video content
  • Benefiting not only hearing-impaired stakeholders but also those in loud or crowded environments

• Ensure Cognitive Accessibility by:

  • Presenting content in multiple ways
  • Having consistent webpage navigation
  • Editing out unnecessary content
  • Learning more through a provided link

• Ensure Motor Accessibility by:

  • Making comms accessible via voice recognition and keyboard commands
  • Using well-spaced and large links to assist stakeholders with fine motor control issues

• Ensure Mobile Accessibility by:

  • Designing and scaling content for mobile devices
  • Considering the increased use of mobile devices by internal stakeholders

• Ensure Language Accessibility by:

  • Using vocabulary and style understandable by stakeholders
  • Translating comms into languages other than English spoken by internal stakeholders, if possible

Evaluate the accessibility of your organization's communication processes, tools, and practices for internal stakeholders with this guided internal communication audit template.