The font you choose for your document can help define the type of message you are sending. Depending on the intended output of your document the choice of font can make quite a bit of difference in how accessible it will be.
Font choice for accessibility?
A reasonable amount of research has been conducted to try and identify an optimum font for legibility and to investigate user preferences for fonts by sighted, blind and partially sighted people. To date this research has produced mixed results, with no single font standing out, but there were some commonalities which may help guide your font choice.
-
Choose a clear font with easily recognisable characters
-
Avoid ornate fonts, or those simulating handwriting
-
Select a medium weight of character - not too thin, but not very thick
Serif or Sans-Serif?
Fonts generally fall into two categories, serif which have "little feet" to emphasise character properties, and sans-serif which do not. Research has been equally inconclusive about the benefits of serif or sans-serif fonts, with an almost equal number of reports recommending each. We therefore currently suggest that you can use either type of font, as long as the typeface is clear and the characters are distinct.
Emphasising text
There are a number of properties which can be applied to any font to alter its appearance for emphasis.
-
Bold can be very useful in drawing people's attention to a particular word or two, but should be used sparingly as a sentence in bold can be challenging to read.
-
Italicising text can make it significantly harder to read, and we therefore recommend you do not italicise text.
-
Underlining is common in the application of hyperlinks for web content, but this can also impact the clarity of your document, so we discourage its use outside of web application - where it should be used sparingly.
-
Capitalising can be used to also draw attention to text, however this can make it difficult for everybody to read, and in internet culture is considered shouting. We recommend you do not use capitalisation in your documents to ensure clarity.