Welcome to the Compassion in World Farming Accessibility Guide for Agencies.

We want our content to be accessible to all, whether they can read it themselves, or by using screen readers or other similar tools. It must be a prioritised part of any work, and not an afterthought.

Any content created for CIWF must meet a minimum of Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

What this means

When creating any visual assets, the following must be considered:

Images must be free of, or have limited, text content. Further image guidance below.
Colour contrast between text and background must be Level AA. Further colour guidance below.
Videos must take into consideration the following, further detail about video accessibility is below.
1. Autoplaying of sound
2. Text to background contrast
3. Caption types
4. Voiceover
5. Signing
PDF's must be created accessibly, we have a dedicated guide for this.

Our full accessibility guide goes into more detail on each topic if needed.

1. Images

Do not use an image to provide information that could be communicated in writing.

Avoid overlaying images with text. Overlaying text in an image immediately excludes users with a vision impairment.

If you have an image with overlaid text, it must be minimal, and:

Ensure that the text is legible on all devices i.e. not too small on mobile and not pixelated on large screens.
Aim for the background behind the text to be a solid colour, then:
Ensure that the text to background ratio is at least 4.5:1 (Level AA), using the Web Accessibility In Mind Contrast Checker. This ensures that those with colour blindness, amongst other impairments, will be able to distinguish the colours from each other.
If your background is not a solid colour, or you are struggling to get sufficient contrast, you can create contrast with a text outline. This social content is a good example.

Using Alt Text

This will mostly impact CIWF employees but is noted here as a helpful reference. The alt tag is the most basic form of image description, and it should be included for all images. However, sometimes it should be empty. There is an Alt text descision tree in our detailed accessibility guide.

2. Colour use

In any visual elements, do not use colour as the only method to convey meaning, such as green for yes and red for no.

When there is text in an image or video, ensure that the text to background ratio is at least 4.5:1 (Level AA), using the Web Accessibility In Mind Contrast Checker. This ensures that those with colour blindness, amongst other impairments, will be able to distinguish the colours from each other.

Brand Colours

In order for brand colour combinations to be accessible, the background and foreground colours must meet sufficient contrast levels for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Level AA.