A guide to providing accessible information
Clear print
Printed materials that use a clear, easy to read, style can help all readers. It is helpful for readers who don’t see so well, have difficulty with words or who find graphics or stylised print hard to follow.
This style of layout and writing is called “Clear Print” and is often the starting point for producing other versions of a document.
It is not possible to create a universally accessible document format or style that will meet the needs of all readers. Clear print strives to find a baseline which is useful for most people. It can serve as the starting point when creating different types of accessible format.
The main key points to consider when preparing a document in clear print are:
Contrast
Contrast forms the starting point for creating accessible publications. The contrast of print against the background of the paper can control a document’s legibility. The contrast can be affected by paper colour, font size, font weight, colour of ink, and luminescence of the paper.
Black type on white paper works well and is the norm. Sometimes you will see black type on yellow paper which also gives a good contrast. If you want to use different colours of paper you should consider how well the print shows up; tints and pastel colours can work well. Strong colours which are not tints or shades but solid colour can produce difficult to read text. Black print on a red or blue background is a common combination which creates problems with contrast and readability.
Paper type can have a dramatic impact on the contrast and visibility of the text. Papers with a gloss finish reflect light and make reading more difficult for people with limited vision. This is a problem for people using CCTV (closed circuit television equipment) to read and magnify documents. The bright lights used in CCTV equipment light up the page viewed by the equipment’s camera. The increased illumination on the paper can cause a glare effect, similar to the flash of a camera on glass. The reflection can make parts of the document unreadable. Rather than using gloss style paper finishes try to use matt finishes.
When selecting paper try to avoid papers which are too thin; as when printed on each side, the text can show through from one side to the other. This will lessen the readability and contrast of the page.
Ink colour
If possible use black ink and where this is not possible make sure the ink is as dark as possible. If the paper is white, or slightly tinted, then strong greens, reds, blues and browns will work. Avoid using yellow, lavender, pink, or pale blue inks as these will not be strong enough. Using pale colours such as these on a coloured background would be difficult to read.
Pictures and drawings
If your work includes pictures for illustrative purposes it is helpful if you provide a text description. Where a picture suggests a meaning or message there should be an accompanying text description.
If your printed work includes any pictures take care not to overwrite the picture with text. Writing text on a picture lessens the contrast and legibility of the text.
Where you use pictures beside text this can result in the irregular layout of the text around the image. Try to keep the text uniform and avoid differing line lengths.
Inverse Text
Some designers like to inverse colours with a section of text such as headlines and attention grabbers. This is where, for example, you write text in white against a background of black instead of the more usual black print on a white backdrop.
You can use inverse text providing the text is written in a heavy enough and large enough font. Using this effect with say, an Arial 12 point font, would not work well. You would usually work with a larger font size; perhaps greater than 16 point and with a bold font style.
Font Sizes
For clear print we are not talking about large print. It is not uncommon to see print produced in font sizes of between 8 and 10 point. These sizes are not always easy to read for some readers and we suggest using a minimum of 12 point. If you are producing a clear print document in large print then you should use a font size of no less than 16 point.
This is not a precise guide as individual fonts can vary and the size of a piece of text written in, say 16 point, in one font can differ from another. As a baseline we would suggest that 14 point Arial is a good working font to start with for standard print.
Font Weights
You can think of a font’s weight as how heavy looking it is. We use the terms regular, normal, and bold to describe font weights. Some fonts may be so light in their style that even at the heaviest weights they do not provide for easy reading. A regular, or normal, Arial style of font is acceptable for clear print production.
Typefaces (Fonts)
Most of the fonts used in publications are legible and with today’s computers you have a wide choice. Try to choose a font which is clear and easy to read.
Avoid the more fancy stylised fonts which are not so clear. When choosing a font look at how numbers print to see that they are clear. With some styles of type it is easy to confuse some numbers with others such as the three, five and eight or the zero and six.
Try to use a sans serif font rather than a serif based font.
There are some typefaces, fonts, which are better than others. After extensive research by the Royal National Institute for the Blind there are now some specially designed fonts. These are useful in producing clear print and large print documents.
The Tiresias LP Font has characters that are easy to distinguish from each other; which is especially important for people with low vision. During the design researchers looked at the character shapes, the weight of the character strokes, the spacing and the effects of different type sizes.
Spacing and layout
When laying out your document use even spacing between the words.
If possible avoid splitting words at the end of lines as these can be difficult for people to read.
If you can, set out your text with an unjustified right-hand margin as this is easier for many people to read than a justified block of text.
Use a space between paragraphs so each block of text is clearly identified as being separate from neighbouring paragraphs.
Capital letters are harder to read than lower-case characters. It is fine to use upper-case characters for the start of sentences, abbreviations, and where a capital is grammatically correct such as in people’s names. Long strings of upper-case characters are not so good and reduce accessibility.
Columns should have a gap between them. The gap should make it obvious there are separate columns and not give the impression of a page of solid text. If this is difficult to achieve draw a vertical line between the columns to separate them.
If your document is large it is helpful to include some form of index or contents section. If a person has difficulty reading then they can read a contents list or index to find out about the nature and content of the document. This avoids having to read through unnecessary material.
When laying out your document adopt a consistent approach to the layout and format of the publication. If you include page numbers remember to make these features accessible.
Where your document is more than a few pages it should be bound in a way which is easy for people to manage. It is useful to remember that documents can be read in various ways and using different techniques.
For example, documents can be placed under a CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) magnifier for reading, placed on a page turner, or read by a scanner. If the document cannot lay flat, is too heavy to hold or is awkwardly large then there may be a barrier to access.
Source: "Information Alternatives - A guide to providing accessible information
