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All documents should be accessible to people with disabilities. Yet, many of us have developed habits when we create documents that are not accessible for people who use screen readers and other assistive technologies to read. Even if we want to make our documents accessible to all it can be difficult to know where to start and which of our habits need to be broken.
Let’s Get Started
The easiest place to begin is with fonts. Sans-serif fontsare the easiest for people with low vision to read as well as being easier for screen readers to read correctly. Arial and Helvetica are two common sans-serif fonts that are highly accessible.
Choose a font size that is large enough to be read. Large type is anything larger than an 18 point font or 14 points if your text is Bold.
Color is an important factor for accessibility as well. Never use color on it’s own to communicate important information! If you are using colored text over a colored background be sure that the contrast is high enough that people who are colorblind can still read it.
Useful tools for checking color contrast are:
To learn more read the Social Security Administration Guide: Producing Accessible Word and PDF Documentsand if you are working in Microsoft Word read their guide, Creating Accessible Word Documents.
Christian McMahon, Communications Specialist, The Arc of California