Ensuring True Accessibility and Preserving Design Integrity
Generally, when approaching a project related to large print or large font texts, the focus tends to be on adhering to the legally required typography. However, this perspective, which seems to prioritize the user (people with reduced vision or the elderly), is actually centered on the Professional Desktop Publishing (DTP) Vendor’s viewpoint. Often, if you don't focus on the satisfaction of the end user, you end up working to meet your own needs instead of theirs.
This is our opinion, and the way we frame our work. As design professionals, we work for a company that needs to communicate with its clients. Visually impaired people are part of their clientele, and while we must consider the best fonts for accessibility and the font size for accessibility, our work goes much further. The complete mission is to make texts accessible to people with reduced visual abilities without losing the company’s identity or deteriorating the original design. People with reduced vision do not only demand the most accessible fonts; this is just a means to access the product or service they require. The best legible fonts are part of our work, and if we can move beyond the dichotomy of 12-point font size or 18-point font size, we will have started on the right foot.
What happens if the design is altered for equitable access?
In some cases, you can't avoid having to modify the design from the original, but that is far from being a defect; it is to be expected. As a designer, you will face the challenge of modifying what is necessary to maintain the message and convey it effectively in an accessible format. Among the most common problems you will encounter are:
Minimum font size for accessibility
When enlarging the font to the minimum font size for accessibility, if our document has a lot of text or columns, the original design often falls apart. Curating the document largely involves not neglecting the details. Changing the font size creates visual noise by disrupting the original layout, so a good practice is to care for widows, orphans, etc., as in any other document. This may seem trivial, but often it becomes a “formality” to comply with ADA, Equality Act 2010 or other legal requirements, neglecting the final product's quality as initially conceived. It's evident that introducing restrictions in design can sometimes prevent us from achieving the original aesthetic idea. In these cases, always prioritizing legibility, we should:
- Reorganize the design: Understand that what works in one design constraint framework may not work the same way when the framework changes. Recognizing this will bring us closer to our goal; denying it will lead us to create a hybrid that compromises effectiveness.
- Refunctionalize the design: Once the size is customized, establish new criteria for solving new design problems. Focus on ensuring the flow of information is as smooth as possible and that the information is clear. Often, lines will take up more than one line, disrupting the concept's unity, visually perceived as two incomplete pieces of meaning. If this error occurs throughout the text, establishing a criterion to cut after a unit of meaning in all cases will preserve narrative integrity.
- Tables: Within tables, when the content of the cells is resized as large font text, it often looks bulky and aesthetically unpleasing. This is sometimes unavoidable, but there are tips to consider:
- Word breaks: Avoid word breaks whenever possible. However, when words are too large to fit in the column, apply breaks. But don’t apply breaks uniformly across the text as this will make the cell content look destroyed, resulting in an aesthetically displeasing and functionally inappropriate outcome. •
- Adjust columns: If the design permits, adjust the columns. Often, cell content load is asymmetrical, and the space needs of some cells affect others, so finding an optimal ratio to harmonize empty spaces and avoid "content gaps" can help.
Best font for visually impaired
Although there is no strict rule on which font style is best, some of the most commonly used legible fonts are: Tahoma, Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman For creating material optimized for reduced visibility, we recommend utilizing the different options provided by these fonts or others you identify as suitable and taking the necessary time to choose the one that best fits your design needs.
What should you consider when choosing your font? Avoid modulated fonts, handwriting, or script. Uniformly structured fonts will always prioritize legibility.
Remember, once we discard all those resources we can't use due to legibility limitations, the next step is determining the appropriate font size and font style to not only provide adapted texts but also deliver a communication piece with an appropriate and pleasant aesthetic. Considering these details will reflect our respect for the end users of the materials we develop, showing a commitment to quality beyond mere compliance with obligations.
Always protect the brand
How we do things speaks volumes about who we are. The way we communicate expresses attributes of our company, or in this case, our client's company. Just as checking off boxes for accessible documents best practices isn't enough to show respect for our visually impaired clients, placing our logo on such documents isn't enough to convey a good brand image. Making our communication accessible suggests (and rightfully so) attributes of our company. When creating a communicative piece, even if it's a routine document of no special relevance, adhering to the policy of paying attention to details and maintaining the graphic identity characteristics we've designed will undoubtedly strengthen our long-term communication scheme. Delivering a carelessly adapted large print format generates a negative experience, whereas responsible and meticulous adaptation of our communications brings us closer to a pleasant interaction, benefiting our brand.
In an era where marketing actions aim to create experiences and direct economic and creative resources in this direction, it’s crucial not to underestimate the potential of each instance where we interact with our clients as part of our daily activities. If we transform these instances into something more than a bureaucratic responsibility, we'll be converting much of our structural expenses into a strategic investment, providing us with soft advertising that, in the long run, creates an organic value associated with respect for the customer and quality through design. Going beyond mere compliance with standards to adopt more friendly and respectful approaches as part of our message will not only improve our company's image but also enhance the company itself. Because form and content are inextricably linked, finding the one that makes us feel comfortable means our communication system will have adapted to accessibility and, more importantly, will have become a more customer-friendly organization: rest assured, this will be clearly understood.