00WHAT THE GUIDANCE SAYS

Make the room
work for everyone.

A bright community hall set out for a talk, with rows of blue chairs facing a blank projector screen and a laptop on a small table at the front — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

One in four people in the UK is disabled.

A community tech talk usually comes with slides, a handout, a video clip and a link sent round afterwards. Government accessibility guidance shows how small choices in each make them usable by far more of the people in the room.

CLEARfor more peopleUpdated 18 October 2026

Check your materials

01Principles

Plain words, short lines
Never colour alone
Caption every video
Small changes, wider welcome

02THE SHORT ANSWER

Simple, structured,
captioned.

GOV.UK's document advice and WCAG 2.2
cover most of what a talk needs.

HANDOUTS

Clear print basics

GOV.UK suggests a sans serif font at 12 points or more, sentence case, left-aligned text and sentences of around 25 words or fewer.

Check your materials

SLIDES

Colour is not enough

WCAG 2.2 says never use colour as the only way to show meaning, use text colours that stand out from the background and avoid images of text.

Four habits

VIDEO

Captions and transcripts

WCAG 2.2 asks for captions for video and transcripts for audio and video, so people who are deaf or have hearing loss can follow.

See the numbers

03CHECK YOUR MATERIALS

What are you
preparing?

Pick an item. The bar shows how many of the guidance points below apply to it, from a single check to several.

Drawn from GOV.UK Publishing accessible documents (updated October 2025) and the GOV.UK Service Manual overview of WCAG 2.2.

Materials check

Choose an itemAn email with the session linkA short video clipA slide deckA printed or emailed handout

An email with the session linkDescribe the link

Make link text say where it goes and make sense on its own, because some screen reader users list the links on a page.

A short video clipCaptions, transcript, controls

Add captions and a transcript, and let people play, pause and stop moving content. Avoid anything that flashes or blinks.

A slide deckColour, contrast, alt text

Do not rely on colour alone, keep text colours clear against the background, avoid images of text and say the point of each chart out loud or in text.

A printed or emailed handoutFont, layout, headings

Sans serif at 12 points or more, left aligned, sentence case, real heading styles, simple tables and alt text for images. HTML is easier to make accessible than PDF.

Sources: Government Digital Service and CDDO, Publishing accessible documents; GOV.UK Service Manual, Understanding WCAG 2.2.

04TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING

More of the room
than you think.

One figure from the Family Resources Survey,
one from RNID on hearing.

1 in 4

People in the UK classed as disabled

The Family Resources Survey counted 16.8 million disabled people (25%) in 2023 to 2024, up from 11.9 million (19%) in 2013 to 2014.

DISABILITY · DWP FRS 2023 TO 2024

1 in 3

People who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus

RNID estimates over 18 million people in the UK, and almost 80% of people over 70 will have hearing loss.

HEARING · RNID

RNID also estimates 2.4 million people in the UK have a level of hearing loss that means they would struggle to hear most conversational speech.

05FOUR HABITS FOR A TALK

Prepare once,
include more.

None of these needs special software. They follow GOV.UK and WCAG 2.2 guidance.

Write it plainly
Explain technical terms and acronyms the first time you use them. GOV.UK says most users, even specialists, prefer simple language.
Use real headings
Build handouts with heading styles and bullet styles, not bold text, so screen readers can navigate them.
Describe your pictures
Make the point of each image or chart in words, or add alt text, so people with a visual impairment get it too.
Share HTML when you can
GOV.UK says HTML respects people's own browser settings, while PDFs often work poorly with screen readers.

A pair of grey headphones and a small desk microphone on a wooden table, ready for an online session — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

06WHY IT MATTERS

Not just
a courtesy.

A hand holding a printed handout, its lines too blurred to read, on a wooden table beside a pair of reading glasses — AI-generated image, not a photograph of a real person or place.

GOV.UK notes that under the Equality Act 2010 organisations are legally required to make sure their documents meet accessibility standards. Government services must achieve WCAG 2.2 level AA.

WCAG 2.2 rests on four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. A community group need not audit every slide, but the principles are a useful checklist before any talk.

07Questions

Questions people ask

What font size should a handout use?

GOV.UK suggests a sans serif font such as Arial or Helvetica at a minimum of 12 points, with sentence case and left-aligned text.

Is a PDF accessible?

Often not fully. GOV.UK says PDFs do not work well with assistive technologies like screen readers a lot of the time, and recommends HTML wherever possible.

Do we need captions on a short clip?

WCAG 2.2 asks for captions for video and transcripts for audio and video. With about 1 in 3 people in the UK deaf, with hearing loss or tinnitus, they help many viewers.

Why avoid images of text on slides?

Text in an image cannot be resized and screen readers cannot read it. GOV.UK and WCAG 2.2 both advise against it.

What is WCAG 2.2?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, an internationally recognised set of recommendations for accessible websites, apps and digital services, built on four principles and 13 guidelines.

08Sources

Make the room
work for everyone.