Accessibility Guide

Accessibility guide for digital content

Everyone has the right to enjoy digital content, products, and services 🫶 At Genially, we’ve created this guide full of tips and recommendations to help you make them accessible.

Accessibility

European Law

Genially Accessibility

How to Create Accessible Content

01

What is accessibility?

Accessibility is a design feature of digital products, services, or environments. The aim of accessible features is to make content usable by everyone, including those with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities.The goal: eliminate barriers and ensure equal access in digital environments.

Accessibility

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02

1. Perceptible: Information must be perceivable by all people.

• Subtitles in videos for people with hearing disabilities.
• Alt text and descriptions for images
• Screen readers for people with visual disabilities.

2. Operable: There must be various navigation options, not just with a mouse.

• Keyboard navigation
• Voice commands
• Leave enough time to complete tasks

3. Understandable: The content must be easy to understand and use for anyone.

• Clear language
• Logical structures
• Cognitive aids

4. Robust: Content must work with different assistive technologies.

• Braille readers
• Text-to-speech or speech-to-text transcription tools
• Magnifiers to enlarge screens

The 4 principles of accessibility

According to WCAG (web accessibility guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium), content must be:

• Perceptible
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

View examples

Accessibility

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03

European Accessibility Law (EAA)

> Key requirements (WCAG level AA):

Websites, apps, and digital content must include:

• Subtitles and video transcripts
• Alt text for images
• Proper color contrast
• Keyboard navigation
• Compatibility with screen readers
• Clearly identifiable buttons, menus, and controls
• Hierarchically structured content (headings, lists, etc.)
• Avoid using colors alone to convey information
• Provide descriptions for interactive elements (graphics, simulations, infographics…)

> What is the EAA?

It is a European Union directive (2019) that aims to ensure accessibility requirements and improve digital inclusion for people with disabilities. It came into force on June 28, 2025.

Requirements

European Law

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04

How to create accessible content

> Practical recommendations to help you meet AA accessibility level

• Use simple designs, without unnecessary elements.

• Add subtitles and transcriptions. Subtitles help people who are deaf or hard of hearing (and those who watch without sound!).
• Keyboard navigation. Some people don’t use a mouse — try navigating with only the keyboard (Tab, Enter, arrows).
• Provide clear instructions and understandable error messages.
• Add descriptive labels on buttons and fields.

• Allow more time or enable pausing timed activities.
• Offer different access options.
• Provide a text-only reading mode when possible.

• Structure the content clearly. Add an index or table of contents to make navigation easier.
• Use proper headings (H1, H2, H3): screen readers need them to navigate.

• Add alt text. Describe all non-textual elements (images, icons, audio, videos).

• Pair colors with text, symbols, or patterns whenever necessary.
• Choose readable fonts of good size. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background.

How to create accessible content

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05

Which features of Genially help create accessible content

> Genially is compatible with assistive technologies, screen readers, and keyboard navigation.

• You can navigate through the different elements of Genially using your keyboard's tab key.
• To move forward and backward through pages, you can use your keyboard's arrow keys.
• The Enter key displays information about elements with applied interactivity.

What does Genially do

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06

Genially functions to help create accessible content

> With Genially, you can:

The screen reader will read the names of the elements of the creation, as well as the alternative texts of the different elements according to the reading order, which by default, is the order in which the layers are ordered in Designer Mode. Decide the reading order. You can drag each element up or down until you think it's in the right order for screen readers. You can also rename them.

The text hierarchy in Genially is already assigned in the different types of text you add from the left sidebar menu, although you can make changes. If you select a text and click on the accessibility icon, a dropdown will appear if you want to assign a different hierarchy to the text box you have selected.

Add alternative text and descriptions to images, icons, tables, charts, links, and interactive questions with image choices. Do this through the accessibility icon available when clicking on any element.

Use interactivity to enlarge and zoom, which allows the image to increase up to 200% of its original size.

Structure and organize elements for reading

Add alternative text and descriptions

Use text hierarchies

Use interactivity to enlarge and Zoom

What does Genially do

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07

Which Genially features help create accessible content

> With Genially, you can:

To have the most suitable and easy-to-understand fonts, colors, and backgrounds ready.

Play a voice recording, music, or sound as an alternative to visual information.

To do this, add text below the audio that provides information about the transcript. For example: "Click here to read the audio transcript". Then, add a window and include the transcript text inside it.

Apply the branding kit

Use audio interactivity

Add transcripts to audio

What does Genially do

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More information about accessibility:

Course: Create accessible resources

Make your geniallys more accessible

Genially and accessibility

E-learning and accessibility: Make it easy!

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