Write accessible documents for people with dyslexia or visual impairment
Do you think that your writing is accessible to people who are dyslexic or have a visual impairment? If so, you are probably wrong.
The good news is that some of your current habits are easy to change.
This article tells you how.
Why do we need to make our writing accessible?
The Equality Act means that you have an ‘anticipatory duty’ to make reasonable adjustments. That means you should fix problems that you can reasonably predict.
The British Dyslexia Association indicates that 10% of adults are dyslexic. Meanwhile, the National Literacy Trust believe that 8 million adults in the UK have a reading age of 11 or below.
Up to 4% of the population relies on some sort of assistive technology because of a visual impairment (VI).
This can include:
- Screen reading software
- Refreshable braille displays
- Screen magnifiers
Because so many people are affected by dyslexia and visual impairment, you can reasonably predict that you need to make your writing easier for them to read.
These eight tips and your info will be more accessible for your readers with both dyslexia and VI.
1. Accessible Fonts
A serif is a small decoration to finish off letters.
Serif fonts include these decorations. The extra detail makes the fonts less readable. Avoid serif fonts such as Times New Roman.
Instead choose a sans-serif font. Sans-serif means “without serif”, so without the decoration that makes the font harder to read.
Some schools use cursive fonts (these look like handwriting). However, these are harder to read and so make an extra barrier. When it comes to whether you should use cursive fonts or not, the answer is simple: Do not use them.
2. More accessible font tips
These next tips are ‘quick wins’ as they need almost no effort to start using today.
- Bold? Yes. This highlights key info and is more legible.
- Underline? No: It’s harder to read.
- Italics? No: It’s harder to read.
- Size? 14 or 16 for headings. 11 or 12 for your main text.
- Line spacing? Avoid single line spacing. Go for 1.2x so that words are less cramped.
- Text in capitals? No: It’s harder to read.
3. Use a good contrast
A good contrast means:
- Dark text on a light background, or
- Light text on a dark background.
Bright colour combinations can make text uncomfortable to read. You should never give your reader a headache!
Also, to avoid making your work harder to read for people who are colour blind (better known as colour vision deficiency). That means you need to avoid certain colour combinations:
- Red and green and brown;
- Purple and blue;
- Grey and pink;
- Grey and brown
Most of these colour combinations are uncommon simply because the combinations look tasteless. That makes them easy to avoid.
4. Use accessible headings
Word has Headings 1 to 5. They add invisible code that helps screen reader users skip between important bits. Use them.
Always use Heading 1 for your main title. Then use Heading 2 & 3 for subheadings depending on how important the subheading is. You’ll not need Heading 4 or 5 unless you have a complex document.
In Word, you’ll find headings in the Styles section:
If you find this turns your headings light blue, that’s easy to change. Just right click on your Heading 1, 2, 3 etc and then click modify:
Once you click modify, simply pick your font, colour, size and bold.
5. Add Alt Text
This means adding a description to any picture you use. Think about describing the image to someone over the phone: What does it tell you.
If you use more than 25 words, you are going on too long.
Be short and sweet with your description.
- Right click on image.
- Click Format image.
- Click Layout and Properties.
- Add your text.
Sense, a charity that supports blind and deaf people, have written a great explanation of how to inclusively deal with images. Click here to read it.
6. Use an accessible document format
Word documents and pdfs are safe choices.
However, pdfs are only accessible if you have saved the document as a pdf. If you have a scanned document that is a pdf, then it this will look like a photo to a screen reader. Screen readers cannot ‘read’ from photos and, when asked to interpret an image, it will say “Empty document.” Needless to say, this is no help to a blind person.
7. Easily convert Word docs to pdfs
Following on from point 6 (i.e. never print your word doc and scan it to make it a pdf)…
If you have written a word doc, it’s easy to convert it to pdf.
- In the File menu, click Save As.
- Then click Save as type.
- Select PDF.
- Click Save.
8. Keep sentences short
When writing for the public, UK government departments have a rule – no more than 25 words in a sentence. That’s because the longer the sentence, the less people understand it. Dyslexic people often have difficulty processing information. When you write long sentences, you just make it harder for them.
When your average sentence length is 14 words, research suggests that people understand 90% of what they have read. At 43 words, this drops to 10%.
UK government says that sentences of 11 words are considered easy to read, while those of 21 words are fairly difficult. At 25 words, sentences become difficult, and 29 words or longer, very difficult. This is a wake-up call if you routinely publish documents that are very difficult for people to read (even those who don’t have dyslexia or visual impairment).
Summary
- Publish in Word or non-scanned Pdf
- Use Word’s tools to mark headings as headings
- Add Alt text for images
- Use size 11 serif font for your main text.
- Use headings (e.g. size 14-16 in bold text).
- Only use font colours that have a good contrast with the background.
And finally, write shorter sentences.
What if I don’t have time to check all my documents?
No one has time to check all of their documents so decide what is most important. In a school, your first priority might be a newsletter template.
See this as a three year project and make improvements when a document or policy is reviewed. Many steps are easy (e.g. switching to a sans-serif font, using size 11, avoiding scanned pdfs). Harder steps (like reducing the complex language used in a policy) can be made easier by using A.I. (e.g. can you convert this paragraph so that it has a reading age of 9 years old).
Want to test how accessible your own writing is?
If so, you can try a screen reader. There are several free options but a good one to try is NV Access screen reader – click here. For a fuller experience, close your eyes when using it.
Other Interesting reads
Take a look at these articles or pick your own from our blog page.
Need help with inclusion in your council, trust or school?
If so, check out our feedback or go direct to our contact page to get in touch.
To get support for writing accessible documents or policies, contact us.
Keep up to date with SEND from 9000 Lives
BlueSky @9000lives.bsky.social
