For employees in global organisations, a SharePoint site is often the digital front door to a campaign, project, function or change programme. A place where people go to stay informed and connected. But as communicators, how can we be sure that we are reaching and empowering our audience?
Having accessibility and sustainability woven into your SharePoint strategy can create a stronger communication channel that will connect employees to your mission, improve engagement and long-term value.
Emily Cusick
Communications Manager & DEI Lead, AG Impact
Here are some practical steps to consider:
Define your site goals and audience
- By understanding your audience you can set the site up for success by ensuring correct access is given and any accessibility considerations are met at the start avoiding any re-design later into the project.
- Make use of site analytics to support any metrics or engagement goals.
Sustainable content management
- Establish content governance and assign clear roles and responsibilities for section or page owners to manage and review content
- Implement a regular content review cycle to audit your content and reduce your sites carbon footprint (see our tips on Digital Clean-up here)
- Use version control and proactively remove old versions of documents to reduce file storage
- Use consistent metadata and tagging for documents
- Create standardised page templates
Follow the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure your content and design meets the global standard
Emily Cusick
Communications Manager & DEI Lead, AG Impact
Accessibility creates equity in communication
- Follow the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure your content and design meets the global standard
- Use a consistent and intuitive site navigation (minimising clicks to key information)
- Use a modern SharePoint site template to optimise the latest web parts and built in accessibility features such as ‘immersive reader’ and ‘accessibility checker’
- Include a variety of formats e.g. audio, video or visual presentations to ensure every employee has an equal opportunity to access information, whether they have a disability, use assistive technology or simply prefer a different way of engaging with content
Promote continuous improvement
- Implement a feedback channel on your site so users can feedback on the site. Did you know MS Forms can be embedded on a page for ease of access?
By understanding your audience you can set the site up for success
Emily Cusick
Communications Manager & DEI Lead, AG Impact
An accessible and sustainable SharePoint site can have a big impact in helping teams to communicate more responsibly and inclusively, as well as helping employees to feel more connected, engaged and informed.
If you’re interested in how we can help you improve your impact through accessible and sustainable communications, let’s talk.
Author details
Emily Cusick
Communications Manager & DEI Lead
