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Create accessible content

Learn how to make your content accessible and why it is important

Type

Use a Sans Serif font such as:

  • Arial
  • Verdana 

Sans serif fonts are designed to be simple and easily read. They are easier to read for clients with dyslexia. Serif fonts tend to obscure the shape of letters and to run them together. Readers can see the shapes of letters more clearly with Sans Serif fonts. 

Size

Set font size to be at least 12 points for body text. This is the minimum size recommended for low vision and those who have a form of cognitive disability.

Vision Australia recommends at minimum, implement 12 point for body text and 9 point for headers, footers, footnotes or endnotes.

Bold, italics, underline, capital letters

Excessive use of bold, Italics and CAPITALS make content more difficult to read.

Capitals

Capitals can imply you are shouting at the reader. It is more difficult to read for people with a reading disability. The shape of a sentence case character has differentiated shape which is easier to read than with capitals.

Italics

The slant of italics make it hard for dyslexic users to make out the words.

Trusted accessibility resources advise against the use of blocks of italic text. For example, WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) readable understanding guideline 3.1 includes an advisory technique for "avoiding chunks of italic text" (World Wide Web Consortium [W3C], 2016).

Bold

A screen reader will not be able to read visual formatting such as bold unless the user changes the screen reader settings to read visual formatting. Most often they do not. If you want to emphasise information, use "Important" or "Note".

Underline

Underlined text is most often used to indicate misspelled words, which can cause confusion.

Don’t use it where it could be mistaken for a hyperlink.

Dyslexie font

Dyslexia is a neurodiverse condition, which affects reading, writing and spelling. It could also affect processing information and problem solving. Christian Boer is affected by dyslexia and created the Dyslexie font to increase the ease of reading and comprehension for some dyslexic users.

The Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) includes a Dyslexie font option.

Access

UQ device

Library device

Personal device

Best practice

Upload two documents for all course work with one created with the Dyslexie font in a pdf and an accessible Word or tagged pdf version.