Accessible Documentation & Leaflets

Here are some tips on good practice:

• Offer a good contrast between print and background (e.g. black/blue on white/yellow)
• Avoid glossy or thin paper
• Aoid light type weights and unusual typefaces
• Keep information as concise as possible with short sentences and paragraphs
• Avoid printing text in capitals
• Provide even word spacing and justify text to the left
• Provide ‘navigational’ aids for the reader (e.g. content lists, clear headings, titled illustrations in appropriate places.)
• Ensure text documents have been generously spaced
• Leave enough space between columns to make sure that text flows easily from column to column

When considering lay-out and design for posters and leaflets (as well as the points above):

• Avoid over-elaborate layouts, especially, placing words on top of photographs or drawings
• Highlight where the focus of the information can be found
• Insure large and clear fonts are used such as Ariel
• Insure the numbering and symbol protocols are kept simple and understand that some characters are difficult to tell apart for those with visual impairments, e.g., 3 and 8, 6 and 9, O and 0, S and 5, iv and vi?

Take care to avoid, where possible:

• words split over lines
• italics
• underlining
• the capitalisation of whole sentences
• narrow line spacing, narrow margins and dense text
• faint print