Improving Accessibility: Print and visual materials
Fran O’Hara | Scarlet Design Š Scarlet Design International Ltd 2010
Improving accessibilty - Why? The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) makes it unlawful for service providers to discriminate against disabled people.
Who are the ‘service providers’ reffered to in the DDA?
The DDA defines a disabled person as: someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial andlong-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) helps the government deliver on the commitment made in the report, ‘Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People’. The report says that: “By 2025, disabled people should have the same opportunities and choices as non-disabled people and be respected and included as equal members of society.”
Who are the service providers? It applies to nearly all service providers, including:
- Local councils (eg. transport, leisure, education)
- Government departments
- Charities
- Hotels and restaurants
- Shops and leisure facilities
- Accountants, solicitors and courts
- Churches
- Doctors, hospitals and clinics
Who are the service users? Who are the audience? (Visible and ‘non-visible) • Approximately 1 in 5 people in Great Britain are disabled. (Family Resources Survey/fact sheet civic participation/office for disability issues)
• Over 2 million people in the UK are registered blind or partially sighted. (Family Resources Survey/fact sheet civic participation/office for disability issues)
• Age-related vision loss “research indicates that vision impairment increases dramatically with age. It is our goal to underscore the need to incorporate principles of universal graphic design into all visual media, so that they are truly useful and legible to the largest possible population.” Barbara Silverstone, DSW, former President and CEO of Lighthouse International.
• Low reading age or confidence in reading • English as a second language • Cultural, ethnic, gender, race issues with the materials (barriers/exclusion)
Types of accessibility models and resources Some suggested references: Office for Disability Issues NIACE: The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education aims to encourage all adults to engage in learning of all kinds. (www.niace.org.uk) Mencap: the UK’s leading organisation working with people with a learning disability. British Dyslexia Association: Dyslexia Style Guide Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) SMOG/reading age calculators Easy Words, Easy Pictures The Government (http://www.direct.gov.uk)
Improve accessibility - Best Practise Publishing best practice checklist • Produce all publications for the general public in 12 point in sans serif font. • If your publication is aimed primarily at disabled people, producing it in 14 point will mean that a standard large print format isn’t required. Make sure that larger sizes are available on request. • Consider which fonts work best for your audience, referring to research. • Provide accessible formats, such as large print and Easy Read on request or in advance if your target audience is mostly disabled people. • Make publications available in other formats on request and within a reasonable timescale: for example, within a week for a text file and within four weeks for Easy Read. • Consider using Easy Access for full accessibility, or for particular campaigns targeted at people with neurological conditions. • Make sure that sections and chapters are clearly defined with headings. • Write in Clear English and print in ‘Clear Print’.
Best practice: The most desirable or most effective level of activity, which becomes a standard to which other practices are compared. http://www.mibcn.com/glossary/glossaryB.shtml
Improve accessibility by improving readability
‘How to write so that everyone can read.’
(NIACE)
‘Readability is an attempt to match the reading level of written material to the ‘reading with understanding’ level of the reader.’
The Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores These provide another measure to assess the reading ease and grade of your writing. You can use Microsoft Word to automatically calculate your document’s Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores: 1. Open your document in Microsoft Word. 2. Go to Tools > Options. Readability tests use 3. Under Spelling and Grammar, tick ‘Show characteristics – such as average readability statistics’. sentence and word length – to 4. Click Okay. generate a score on how easy 5. Go to Tools > Spelling and Grammar. a piece of writing is to read. 6. Tick the ‘Check grammar’ box. They do not take actual meaning into account, so are not 100% 7. Check the spelling and grammar of your document. reliable. 8. When you have finished, your readability statistics will show automatically.
http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8036039#contents-4
Improve accessibility by improving readability
NIACE: The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education aims to encourage all adults to engage in learning of all kinds. www.niace.org.uk
Ways to improve readability: use plain English “Writing in plain English helps everyone to understand what they read.” (NIACE)
1. Plan what you want to say. 2. Cut out the unnecessary detail. Present the important information in a logical sequence, one step at a time. 3. Try to write as you speak. 4. Don’t use jargon, unnecessary technical detail or abbreviations.
5. Keep sentences short. If you remember to have only one main idea per sentence this will happen naturally. 6. Use simple punctuation. 7. Use active and personal language. Talk to your readers directly using active and personal language. Using “you” and “we” makes your writing more direct and understandable. 8. Be consistent. 9. For important concepts, use the same words and phrases consistently, even if it sounds repetitive. 10. Always use the number even for small numbers, when you are writing largely for people with a learning disability, 11. Make it clear what action is required.
Mencap resource: ‘Am I making myself clear?’ The use of plain English is a minimum standard for all Mencap written material.
Improving accessibility - ‘Clear print’ Using ‘Clear print’ Clear Print is RNIB’s print design guidelines for all types of documents. The guidelines have been specially created to enable everyday information to be immediately accessed by more people. ‘Clear print’ is a way of designing and producing printed material that is particularly useful for people who have visual impairments or dyslexia. It is not the same as large print. As well as font size, the relationship between the visual height of characters and the surrounding white space, is important. ‘Clear print’ has production, storage, distribution and archiving cost implications.The Department for Communities and Local Government has estimated increasing type and leading size by two points on their publications will increase these costs by 15%. Who benefits from Clear Print? Because Clear Print is designed to be used for all documents, it has far reaching benefits. A clearly designed and easy to read document will convey your essential information to everyone who reads it, and in the process can convey a positive view of the originating individual or organisation. Using ‘Clear print’ will make your publications easier to read for everyone.
Improve accessibility - ‘Clear print’ checklist 1. Is the typeface 12 point or more? 2. Does the text contrast clearly with the background? 3. Are you using a clear typeface? 4. Is there enough space between each line of type? 5. Is there minimal use of words or sentences in capital letters? 6. Are any numbers clear? 7. Are whole words carried over to the next line rather than split between two lines? 8. Is text aligned to the left margin rather than centred or justified? 9. Are the gaps between words and letters even? 10. Are there 60-70 characters per line? (less than this for columns) 11. Is there enough space between columns? 12. Is the page layout clear and unfussy? 13. Are page numbers and headings in the same place on each page? 14. Is there a contents list? 15. Is there space between paragraphs? 16. Is text set horizontally? 17. Have you avoided setting text around illustrations? 18. If the reader needs to write on the page, is there enough space? 19. If there are images, are they clearly defined and easy to read? 20. Are images clearly separated from the text? 21. Is the paper matt? Is the page a size that is easy to handle? 22. Do any folds cut or obscure the text? 23. Can the document be flattened so that it can be placed under a scanner or screen magnifier?
Improve accessibility - Office for Disability Issues
The Office for Disability Issues works across government to forward the disability equality agenda.
Improve accessibility - Office for Disability Issues Easyread
Improving accessibility - how? Knowing your audience... Thinking about your intended audience, and its abilities and needs, is the key to producing accessible information.
Relevant information...
Ask what information is relevant to your intended audience. Cut out any confusing or unnecessary detail, while making sure the essential information is very clear. Use plain English (if the level is appropriate for the target audience.)
Remember that you are writing for adults...
If the words or pictures that you use are inappropriately childish they will meet no-one’s needs. But if you do the job well you may find that everyone prefers the “accessible� version.
Involve your audience...
Wherever possible involve your audience in the creative process. Seek the advice and ideas of people with learning disabilities as early as possible. (Source: Mencap)
Accessible print design
“Size matters.� Everyone over the age of 45 experiences some form of age-related vision loss that makes reading small print and distinguishing colors difficult. That’s why size matters. So do font, contrast and leading when designing printed media. These graphic elements can either help or hinder readability, depending upon how they are employed. Making effective choices can maximize the reach and impact - of messages communicated in print, and can ensure access to information for all of us as we age. Source: Lighthouse International
Critics say the approach restricts graphic designers, Lighthouse International urges the professional design community to bear in mind the suggestions below. According to vision science expert, Aries Arditi, PhD, author of Lighthouse International’s print legibility and color contrast guidelines, “In addition to making information available in alternate formats -- braille, raised letters and audio -- improvements in legibility can be accomplished with surprisingly simple steps that make text accessible to people with a broader range of visual capabilities.” Color - People with impaired vision almost always have color vision deficits as well. Designers need to take steps to ensure that colors contrast effectively for this audience. Dr. Arditi elaborates, “Color vision deficits cause difficulties in discriminating colors on the three most important perceptual dimensions of color: hue, lightness and saturation. Colors are best chosen to differ dramatically on all three dimensions.”
”Ensuring print legibility presents a creative challenge to the design community and prompts us to re-examine what we do. It also reminds us to keep audience needs top of mind when we design.” (www.lighthouse.org)