In plain English
It is easy to write instructions like “click the round button”, “choose the item on the left”, or “when you hear the beep”. Those all assume the reader can see shapes and positions or hear sounds. Many cannot. This rule says: whenever you tell people how to do something, do not rely only on a sensory cue. Add the name or label too.
You can still say “the green button on the right”, just also say what it is: “select Continue”.
Who this is for
- Screen-reader users, who have no sense of visual position or colour.
- Colour-blind users, for whom “the green one” is meaningless.
- Deaf users, for whom “when you hear the tone” does nothing.
How to check and fix it yourself
Scan your instructions, help text, and error messages for words like left, right, above, below, round, square, green, red, or “beep”. Add the actual label:
Bad: "Tap the round icon to add to cart."
Good: "Tap Add to cart (the round cart icon)."Where we can help
These phrasings hide in microcopy, tooltips, and onboarding. We flag every instruction that depends on a sensory cue alone and suggest wording that works for everyone. It is a small but common item on the failures list.