Tips to Create Accessible and Inclusive Job Postings
Job postings are often the first point of contact between your organization and your potential employees. To ensure inclusion and accessibility is kept top of mind, it's essential to consider your language, formatting, and the platforms you use. Designing your job posting with accessibility in mind can help avoid unintentionally excluding candidates with disabilities.
Below are some key tips for creating accessible job postings:
Content
Organize Information Clearly: Ensure your job posting is easy to read and follow. Prioritize the most important information at the top.
- Use Plain Language: Keep your wording simple to improve communication, clarity, and accessibility for all candidates.
- Be Concise: Use short sentences (20 words or less) and brief paragraphs (up to five sentences). Choose familiar terms and avoid job-specific jargon and acronyms.
- Aim for a Fifth to Sixth Grade Reading Level: Keeping your language to a fifth or sixth grade reading level can help ensure clarity for a broader audience. You can use tools such as the Hemingway Editor to help determine the reading level of your content.
- Alternative Skills/Practice: Avoid rigid requirements that may discourage applicants with different abilities. For example, instead of "valid driver's licence," use "ability to travel and provide own transportation."
- Use Inclusive Language: Replace gender-specific pronouns and/or terms with gender-neutral alternatives like "applicant" or "candidate". You can use tools like Gender Decoder to find out if your job posting/advertisement is neutral or not.
- Focus on Essential Job Functions: Clearly define the core responsibilities that a candidate can perform with or without reasonable accommodations. This allows applicants to assess their own fit for the role.
- Offer Accommodations: Clearly state your organization’s commitment to providing accommodations and outline the process for requesting them.
- Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA): Highlight your organization's commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, either in the job posting or by linking to your IDEA statement.
Formatting for Accessibility
Proper formatting ensures your job posting is readable and accessible to everyone.
- Avoid Using Colour Alone to Convey Information: Do not relying solely on colour to convey information, as it may be inaccessible to readers who are colour-vision deficient.
- Choose Readable Fonts: Stick to simple, sans-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri. For regular text, use at least 14-point size, and for web content, at least 18-point.
- Ensure Adequate Colour Contrast: Use high-contrast colours for text and background to help people with low vision read the content.
- Add Alternative Text to Visuals: If your job posting includes images, provide alt text with clear descriptions so that screen reader users can understand the content.
- Use Headings and Lists: Break your content into sections using descriptive headings and organized lists. Screen readers use headings to navigate, and lists help emphasize important points.
- Use Informative Hyperlinks: Link text should clearly describe where the link will lead, helping readers understand its purpose without additional context.
- Avoid Manually Created Lists: Use proper list formatting instead of manually typing symbols (e.g., dashes, asterisks), as screen reader software may not recognize them as lists.
- Set the Correct Language for Your Posting: Setting the language of the document properly helps screen readers pronounce the text properly when it contains multiple languages.
Accessible Online Platforms
When posting your job listing, ensure that the platforms you use support accessibility features, such as:
- Keyboard Compatibility: Interactive elements (buttons, forms, links) must be navigable via keyboard.
Assistive Technology Compatibility: Ensure the platform works with screen readers, magnifiers, and other type of assistive technologies.
- Logical Structure: Ensure headings and other navigation elements are clear and accessible to all users.
- Availability of visual adjustment features: Allow users to resize text without losing content or functionality.
- Accessible Forms and Controls: Ensure that all forms and buttons can be operated via keyboard and are properly labeled.
- Contrast and Readability: Maintain high contrast between text and background to insure readability, and use clear and legible fonts with proper size and spacing.
Accessibility on Your Website
Many organizations rely on third-party job posting platforms, but it’s also important to ensure that your own website meets current accessibility standards. By advertising the position on your website, you maintain control over the accessibility of the listing and provide an alternative platform for applicants.
By following these best practices, you can create job postings that welcome a wider pool of talented candidates, including those with disabilities, ensuring that your organization is open to all.
