Keep decorative icons from interrupting spoken reading

What to change

Ask your supplier to keep purely decorative symbols quiet in reading software while retaining useful names for icons that communicate information or perform actions.

A worked example

Illustrative example

A decorative arrow after Contact us is silent, while a standalone Close popup icon remains announced as a usable action.

Healthcare website design showing connected desktop and mobile service and enquiry layouts. — Make the service and next step clear on every screen.

Healthcare website accessibility illustrated by a focus outline, keyboard key, contrast samples and form. — Review keyboard access, contrast and understandable form fields.

Why this matters to your practice

Decorative arrows and ticks can make a design feel friendly, but they should not turn spoken reading into a stream of unexplained symbols. Ask your supplier to listen through a real service listing rather than reviewing icons in isolation. Separate decoration from information: an arrow beside a clearly worded link may add nothing, while a standalone close button needs a meaningful name. The goal is to remove distracting repetition while keeping every useful action and warning understandable.

How to check the result

Accept when decorative imagery does not clutter reading and every meaningful standalone icon still communicates its purpose or state.

A mistake to avoid

Suppressing all image descriptions indiscriminately can silence important controls along with the decoration that prompted the change.

Turn reading into a next step

Your action checklist

Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.

Checks to discussAsk your supplier to demonstrate this check with you: listen to a service card collection and contact panel with a screen reader (software that reads the page aloud). Record announcements that add no information beyond the adjacent text.Identify icons that do carry a state or action, such as a warning or close control. Confirm they retain a meaningful accessible description.Repeat after the supplier's adjustment. Check that removing decorative announcements did not also remove the labels of genuine icon-only actions.

Your answers and notes

Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.

What happens next, and who will do it?

Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.

Related guides

Need help with this?

Tell us what is getting in the way. Kay & Co. can help you understand the options and turn the next step into something that works for your practice.

Explore websites & patient experience services or discuss your project.

Try the free Healthcare Digital Planner to find your starting priority.