Overview
OLC Creative Services may not offer training or support with accessibility. Please contact EIR Electronic Accessibility (EIRA).
These typographical guidelines are for graphic design (print and digital), not web design.
Use real Unicode bullets.
Not all characters in a font set are voiced properly, even if they are Unicode fonts.
JAWS would read the following list as “Groceries, List of four items, bullet coffee, bullet mangos, bullet coconut milk, bullet tofu.”
Groceries
- Coffee
- Mangos
- Coconut Milk
- Tofu
Unfortunately, some characters commonly used as bullets are voiced weirdly. For example, if the “Groceries” list used the diamond-shaped character from the Wingdings font set, it won’t be read at all.
When this happens, JAWS reads the list as though it is a paragraph, because there is no character JAWS can read as “bullet.” This means there is nothing to indicate each item in the list. JAWS would read it as “Groceries, List of four items, coffee, mangos, coconut milk, tofu.”
While a missing bullet character <Lbl> is not always a barrier to accessibility, it will fail the PAC 2024 checker.
Other characters may just be voiced weirdly, and not say “bullet” at all. Some say “Oh” and “Lozenge” and “Reverse not signed,” all of which are nonsensical.
For these reasons, we recommend only using a select few characters in both Arial and Wingdings font sets to create bullets.
This image shows recommended Arial and Wingdings characters for bullets.
Download the text file bullets.rtf to copy/paste these “good” bullet characters easily. See a longer list from Chax Accessibility Training.
If you absolutely cannot use Unicode bullets and you must use a nonstandard bullet character, you can remediate each bullet in PDF by nesting each nonstandard character in a <Span> tag and pasting in a standard Unicode bullet in the Actual Text field. See this tutorial from Tagged PDF.
Use fonts with unique features between letters.
- The uppercase “I”, lowercase “l”, and the number 1 do not look the same
- The ascenders (b, d) and descenders (j, y) are easily recognizable
- Letters are not mirror images of one another (b & d, p & q)
- Letters do not look like numbers (o & 0, 6 & b, 8 & b, 9 & p)
- There is sufficient kerning between letters (especially r’s and n’s and f’s and t’s) so they don’t run together
An easy test is to compare the number 1, capital letter I, and lowercase letter l. If these characters look the same, it is best to choose another font.
Use this search for “accessible” fonts to easily find fonts with unique features between letters on Adobe Fonts.
Use clean type treatments.
- Limit the number of typeface sizes and variations
- Limit the use of italics, bold, and all caps
- Never use fonts smaller than 10 pts
- Use a bolder weight, and asterisks or another indicator for emphasis (instead of just italics)
Ensure readability.
- Avoid text overlaid on busy backgrounds, textures, or gradients
- Never use justified text
- Avoid widows, orphans, runts, and rivers
- Use short line length – no more than 80 characters per line
- The leading should be at least 1.5 times the size of the typeface (12/18, 14/21, 16/24)
- The tracking and kerning should be at least 0.12 times the size of the typeface
- The spacing between words should be at least 0.16 times the size of the typeface
- Only use bullets that make sense when read by JAWS
Create clean layouts.
- Avoid ungrouped elements
- Avoid items jammed up together
- Create pathways through the layout
- Ensure white space is used to guide readers through the layout
- Use “chunking” to break up long sections of text into separate paragraphs or lists
- Do not use sensory characteristics (color, shape, size, location, orientation, or sound) alone to convey information; Pair with another indicator that does not rely on sensory characteristics