Improving accessibility across the board

Our differences are what make us stronger. So, why would we want to create communications that only a fraction of the workforce can benefit from. Good communications are accessible to all. Here are some measures to take that can help ensure that the whole team is on the same page.

Look at typography

The written word is an essential part of getting a message across – but we need to take extra steps to ensure that what we write is easily understood. People who have poor vision or reading disorders may find a huge block of text off-putting. We can change typography to help overcome these barriers and format text to make it easier to read for everyone.

There are two aspects to consider – legibility and readability. The first refers to certain typographic traits that affect how easy it us for us to recognise the words on a page. On the other hand, readability is the clarity and speed of which content can be digested, all of which are influenced by aspects such as how the typing is spaced and how text is split across a page.

Here are some ways to improve legibility:

Using a bigger font size (16-24 point recommended). Upping the font size you use in communications is an easy way to help improve legibility for those with sight problems. However, this also comes at a price – bigger fonts take up much more space, so you’ll need to factor this in.
Consider how bold or light your font is. If your font is too bold or too light, then this can make it difficult to decipher.
Choose a font with a balanced height to width ratio. Letters that are too tall or too wide can cause difficulties. A sentence written in a font like this is much harder to read!
Think about display fonts and text fonts. Many fonts are designed to be decorative and used for titles only!

Here are some tips to boost readability:

Think about line length and column width. If a line is too short or column too narrow, this can make text harder to digest. Similarly, if either are too long, this can make text difficult to follow as well!
Spacing is important. If there is too much, or too little space between letters, this can make the reading experience less intuitive.
Make sure your text is left-aligned. Right-aligned and centred text can cause jagged edges on the left-hand side that are difficult for our brains to follow. Justified text may also cause strange spacing between words that makes following the flow of the sentence difficult.
Avoid visual distractions. Paragraphs written in full caps or heavy use of stylistic choices such as italics and underlining can negatively impact readability.

Accessibility in design

Design already goes a long way towards making messaging more accessible. After all, good design is all about taking a concept and transforming it into something visual and easily understood. However, there are some things we can bear in mind to ensure that everything we design is accessible to all:

Colour

A person’s perception of colour can be impacted by several different variables, including lighting, vision problems, their age and more. As colour plays such a significant role in communications, it’s a good idea to help overcome these hurdles where possible.

A good general rule is to ensure that there’s a significant difference in colour value between any text/visual elements and the background – at least 70%. You can quickly check how effective the colour values you are using are by turning your screen greyscale. If anything becomes harder to see, switch the colour up!

Think also about colour contrast; using complementary colours from different sides of the colour wheel (such as blue and orange or yellow and purple) is a great way to ensure that colours pop and remain highly visible. It’s important to note that autistic individuals find colour contrasts harder to process, so they may struggle with designs with lots of contrasting colours.

Text is important

It’s often tempting to try to convert messaging into just visuals and to do away with portions of text altogether. However, this can make your information less accessible, especially to those who rely on methods such as screen readers. Effectively, there must be text alternatives available to ensure that the message is able to be understood by everyone. In printed communications, this could mean braille or symbols to help ensure that content is accessible. In video content, make sure there are closed captions to accompany any voiceovers.

On webpages, we can also use audio elements to help convey information. However, it’s important that these don’t contain any unique material, as this could also create barriers for those who are hard of hearing.

A material choice

Accessibility can also be affected by the materials we use to create communications. Let’s look at an example – posters. If a poster is made from shiny material that has too much glare in the light, this can create legibility issues. We also need to think about the base colour of what we’re printing physical communications on and whether this will affect any colours used. Designing a colourful graphic that looks great on a computer screen doesn’t always mean it’ll look the same on paper.

A more accessible future

Accessible communications are the future, and we’re here to make sure that every member of the workforce can benefit from what you want to say. These are just a handful of the ways we make communications more accessible. If you’d like to work with us on a project, please get in touch today.