How can organisations make their branding more accessible?

Build a brand that works in practice

An accessible brand needs to work beyond the polished examples shown in brand guidelines. In practice, organisations use their identity across reports, service information, presentations, social content, websites and materials with very different amounts of information. The brand system needs enough flexibility to handle those situations without making content harder to read or understand. That can mean defining accessible colour combinations, providing typography options for different types and amounts of content, creating layouts that work with both short and detailed content, and building templates that make good choices easier for the people using them. Sometimes the problem is not the identity itself, but the guidance around it. A brand may already contain suitable colours, type and visual elements, but still be used inconsistently or in ways that create unnecessary barriers. Good brand guidance should help people apply the identity accessibly in everyday communication, not leave them to solve the same problems from scratch each time. If you are unsure whether the problem sits with the identity, the guidance or a wider communication issue, our article on reviewing your website, brand and messaging before starting a bigger project explores this in more detail.

Keep the brand distinctive

Making a brand more accessible does not mean making it bland, generic or less recognisable. Distinctiveness can still come through in the way you use colour, typography, imagery, shape, composition and tone. The aim is to make sure those choices do not create unnecessary barriers for the people using or reading your communication. Accessibility should influence how the identity is applied, not strip away what makes it feel like your organisation. Accessible choices should still feel intentional and recognisably yours. The goal is to remove unnecessary barriers without removing the personality that helps people recognise and remember the organisation.

Make information easier to see and follow

Visual choices can make information easier to follow or create barriers before someone has even started reading. Colour contrast is an important starting point. W3C guidance recommends a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for most text and 3:1 for qualifying larger text. This is particularly important when placing text over coloured backgrounds or imagery. But good contrast does not automatically make something easy to read. Typography, text size, line spacing, line length, heading hierarchy and the amount of information competing for attention all affect how easily someone can follow the content. Colour should not carry important meaning on its own either. If a chart, status or instruction relies only on colour to distinguish information, some people may miss the difference. Make the hierarchy clear enough that people can quickly see what matters, understand how information is organised and move through it without unnecessary effort.

Make the language and formats accessible too

Accessibility also depends on how information is written and the formats available to people. Clear headings, plain language and shorter, well-structured sentences can make communication easier to understand. Avoid unnecessary jargon and unexplained acronyms, particularly when writing for people who may be unfamiliar with your organisation or sector. GOV.UK guidance on accessible communication also recommends making standard information as accessible as possible and providing alternative formats where they are needed. The brand system should be flexible enough to support those formats. Templates may need to accommodate larger text, layouts should work with Easy Read content, and video graphics should leave enough space for captions rather than competing with them. Other needs, such as alt text, transcripts, audio or BSL, go beyond visual branding itself. The important point is that the identity should support accessible communication rather than making those adaptations harder to provide.

Test the brand in the real world

A brand can look accessible in a presentation and still create problems when people actually use it. Test social graphics on small screens, put realistic amounts of text into templates, print documents rather than only reviewing them on screen, and check how layouts behave when content becomes longer or more complex. Where possible, involve disabled people in that process. Their experience can reveal barriers that automated checks or internal reviews may miss and help you understand how the communication works in practice. Testing should also reflect the format. Websites and digital services may need specialist technical accessibility testing alongside the brand review, while printed materials, presentations and social content each create different practical considerations. Try to find and resolve problems before the communication reaches the audience, rather than after.

Create a brand that keeps working

Accessible branding is not about adding a few special cases around a rigid identity. It is about creating a brand system that helps more people read, understand and use your communication from the start. The strongest systems make accessible choices easier to apply in everyday work while still keeping the organisation recognisable and distinctive.