Alison Doyle
Disability Officer
Print Accessibility
Accessibility
Everyone benefits from clear, readable text content. People with
visual impairments benefit particularly.
Dyslexia is a disability which is very sensitive to particular typefaces,
both in print and on screen. Whatever materials you are creating,
they should be accessible to as broad an audience as possible.
Many of the difficulties that occur with dyslexia result in a barrier,
although symptoms can vary between individuals, difficulties do
result in similar patterns of problems.
Neurological
Experimental studies now provide evidence of some perceptual
difficulties in dyslexia for tasks involving the processing of rapidly
changing information, such as the perception of flicker or motion (Stein,
1994).
Such difficulties in processing rapid visual information implicate the
magnocellular visual system (Stein and Walsh, 1997). The
magnocellular system is particularly important for the control of eye
movements and visual attention.
Neuroanatomical abnormalities relating to this visual pathway have
been reported in the brains of dyslexic people (Livingstone et al.,
1991).
Wash-Out-effect
River effect
•
Swirl effect
Blurry effect
Fonts
Serif
Serif fonts have worked well for hundreds of years. They tend to look more oldfashioned and 'establishment'. The serifs - the flowing marks at the points of
letters - work by leading the eye on to the next letter, making for a smoother and
easier read. However, this only works at high resolutions (e.g. print). At low
resolutions, the extra complexity decreases clarity, and the reduced whitespace
between letters makes recognition slower.
Sans-serifs are literally fonts that don't have serifs. They look more
modern and open. Sans-serif fonts are more readable than serifs on
pixel-based displays, because they are simpler, which translates well to
low-resolutions.
Page format
Text should be justified to the left hand side only as fully
justified blocked text disrupts the spacing like this:
I den tify t heben fits ofde leg ation forbo thethe or gan
is at ion an ditsemPloyees an dout l ine th ereson sfo ran
lac kof de gation th at myocur ffrom th eit her pesuriors o
rsubdinor ates p e r sp ecive
When what it really says is this:
Identify the benefits of delegation for both the
organisation and its employees and outline the reasons
for any lack of delegation that may occur from either the
superiors or subordinates perspective
Universal Design
"I’m surrounded by thousands of books and not able
to read any of them. I’m not asking for anything
special, just the same as everyone else – to be able
to read the book I want.”
What information should be accessible?
All information circulated within, and outside College should
be accessible, including:
• academic materials (including lecture notes and
handouts)
• administrative information (including website material,
prospectuses, course handbooks and timetables)
• general information, including that from student
services, the Students’ Union and clubs and societies.
Colour Contrast (black and white)
Black font on white background can give too
much reflection. This is a particular difficulty
for dyslexic students, especially those who
also suffer from scotopic sensitivity syndrome.
The following are some suggestions for
visually impaired and dyslexic readers.
DO NOT USE ENTIRELY BLOCK
CAPITALS – VERY DIFFICULT TO
READ
• IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN LETTERS WITH
UPSTROKES AND DOWNSTROKES WHEN ALL LETTERS ARE THE
SAME SIZE.
• USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR ISOLATED LETTERS ONLY AND FOR
SOME HEADINGS
• FOR MAIN TEXT USE UPPER AND LOWER CASE LETTTERS, AS
WORDS RETAIN THEIR SHAPE FOR EASY READING
• USE LETTERS IN A PLAIN TYPE FONT (ARIAL), ITALICS CAN BE
DIFFICULT
• FAT LETTERS ARE MORE EASILY SEEN THAN THIN LETTERS.
KEY WORDS SHOULD BE HIGHLIGHTED IN BOLD TYPE
• COLOUR CONTRASTING OF THE LETTERING AND THE
BACKGROUND SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
Colour Contrast (green and navy)
More muted colours can improve visibility
Colour Contrast (green and black)
More muted colours can improve
visibility, they remove the ‘glare’.
Colour Contrast (dark red and
cream)
More muted colours can improve
visibility
Colour Contrast (grey and red)
More muted colours can improve
visibility
Can you see the difference?