Learning about best practices around accessibility and applying them to your work is not only an incredibly meaningful way to center and advance your organization’s goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion, it also allows you to experience the curb-cut effect in action. What you create—like reports, presentations, videos, and grant applications—will be better for everyone who joins your organization as an employee or who wants to connect with your organization as a grant partner. And here are four ways that you can operationalize the curb cut effect from where you sit.

Be careful with your color choices. Did you know color vision deficiencies (CVDs) affect approximately one in 12 men and one in 200 women? Those with CVDs may be excluded from understanding your work—for example, charts and graphs—if you rely on color alone to convey information, and there is not enough contrast between the colors you use.

Pay attention to type formatting and decorations. How you style text is also incredibly important to your entire audience, including those with disabilities and impairments. Avoid having entire lines of text that are all capitalized, italicized, and/or underlined since these effects compromise legibility and make it more difficult for those who rely on standard letter shapes to decipher them.

Optimize your work for screen readers. Think about how your work will be perceived by those who are using a screen reader. If the images you use convey meaning, this audience will be excluded from understanding your message if there is no alternative text (more commonly referred to as alt text) ascribed to it.

Think about your language choices. While there is no single language style preference used, it is important to make respectful and inclusive word choices when communicating with or talking about people with disabilities in your work and everyday life.

Read the full article about disability inclusion by Richelle Pittella at PEAK Grantmaking.