What Makes Text Readable

Welcome to Accessibility in 5, a series from UFIT where we explore a quick tip on making your content more accessible in 5 minutes or less. I'm Stephanie and today's topic is how we can make text readable.

Having readable text in your course site and documents helps on multiple different accessibility fronts. Not only does it allow for students that have low vision to be able to read your content more easily, but it also allows for students with cognitive processing challenges to take in your content without being overwhelmed.

There are several aspects of text readability that we focus on, including font size and type, and to chunk content based on similar topics while utilizing heading structures. When thinking about the type and size of font that you want to utilize within your course content, try to think of what will make reading this page the easiest process that it can be.

For example, instead of choosing a more decorative font like Kunstler or Palace Script because you want to add visual interest to a page, maybe choose a simple non-serif font like Arial for its simplicity. We recommend using simple serif fonts, usually for heading levels, and non-serif fonts for regular paragraph text. The simpler the font the better, as you never know if your students have low vision or even if they're an English language learner that may struggle with making out words written in complicated scripts.

Additionally, we always recommend being aware of the size of font that you utilize in your content. Most of us have been in situations where we're at a conference sitting in the back of the room and can't read the presentation being displayed at the front of the room because the font is just too small. It's frustrating for anyone, but especially if it's a consistent problem.

In PowerPoints, we recommend using 18-point font as the lowest size font for normal slide text and 24-point font for the headings and titles. For documents, we recommend using no less than a 12-point font.

In combination with font choice and size, we also recommend segmenting your information into related topics when putting text on a web page or in a Word document. By chunking your information, you're allowing your students to intake information in smaller, more manageable pieces than if you just put everything on a page with no breaks.

I don't know about you, but when I see a wall of text in front of me, it makes me want to just give up and definitely not read. You can break your content up with different stylistic elements like paragraph breaks, but we also recommend using heading structures, starting with the lowest number heading one, and sequentially working your way up or down depending on how you're structuring your content. We'll talk more about how to use heading structures in a future video.

Another great tool to break up your content is to utilize list structures. These help students by drawing attention to a few key details through creating either a bulleted or numbered list to switch up how content looks on your page or document.

Thanks for watching Accessibility in Five. You can find this video, as well as previous ones archived under Resources on citt.ufl.edu. Tune in next month to learn about applying structure to your text.