Love is accessible
I was once taught that, as designers, we should never use a font size larger than 8pt. At the time, I was living with a medical condition that disrupted my cognitive functions in a way that made reading very difficult, but I still didn't pick up on the fact that a font size could disable me more than my condition.
While working as a carer, I had a client who had advanced Alzheimer's. While Maria* could still do routine tasks like making a cup of coffee or remembering to lock the door, the disease affected her ability to follow a conversation, answer open-ended questions, and navigate unfamiliar surroundings. One thing we could do and did a lot together was play cards, which Maria was very good at! It delighted me to see Maria enjoying the game. I wondered what else we might enjoy together and tried out a jigsaw puzzle.
Maria told me how much she loved puzzles. But after a few minutes, I realized that finding the pieces was too challenging, and instead of enjoying it, Maria became defeated and distressed. I knew that Alzheimer's causes memory loss and confusion. Still, when I began researching more, I found that it can also make it harder to distinguish between low-contrasting colors. This was the problem the jigsaw puzzle was posing.
I went shopping and found another puzzle with bright colors on a white background and simple, easy-to-distinguish shapes. While the puzzle still challenged Maria, she was able to complete it and, as far as I could tell, loved it! The immense satisfaction of bringing a bit of happiness and entertainment to Maria’s day inspired me to try designing more Alzheimer's-friendly jigsaws.
Unfortunately, I stopped working on that project soon after, when I left my job as a care worker to start my master's at the GSD. My focus changed, and I didn't think about jigsaw puzzles or 8pt font sizes again until a couple of months ago when I attended an accessible graphics primer by design.able.
Design.able is a student-run organization at Harvard GSD, founded by architecture students Hannah Wong and Erik Larson in 2020. Inspiring, proactive, and gracious, their goals are to"promote inclusive design and dismantling ableism by educating designers on inclusive practices and supporting disabled communities in creative disciplines." (design.able)
Here is what I learned at their first workshop in September 2022:
Excerpts from the Accessible Graphics Primer by design.able (shared with their permission)
Why this is important
Disability refers to the intersection between individuals with a health condition and personal and environmental factors.
World Health Organization, “Disability.”
[design.able] want people who are blind (43 million people in the United States), have vision loss / visual impairment (295M), have cognitive disabilities (200M), are color blind (300M), or use screen readers (7.5M), to access information equitably.
Font:
There are several factors that influence the readability of text, including:
Serif vs. Sans Serif
Size
Letter Case
Typographical Emphasis
Arial is a font often recommended as an alternative to Comic Sans for people with dyslexia.
Garamond was designed to be highly legible in large bodies of printed text.
Georgia and Verdana were specifically designed to be read on a screen.
In the end, it comes down to the specific use case and what the intended use of the font is for.
Font size:
Standard minimum text size for print and web should be 14pt
Uppercase and lowercase letters are generally easier to read than all uppercase letters.
Extra thin, extra black, italic, and condensed fonts are less legible unless used at larger sizes.
The uneven spacing between words in fully justified text can cause "rivers of white space" to run down the page, making reading difficult and, in some cases, impossible.
Line spacing should be at least 1.5x to font height within the paragraph
Paragraph spacing should be at least 1.5x of the line spacing within the paragraph
Keep line length below 80 characters (below 40 for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters)
Hierarchy is a critical element that allows readers to determine the importance of different content and allows them to absorb information more quickly. Size, weight, color, and placement all play a key role in the relative importance of information.
Color:
Smaller text (under 18 pt or 14 pt bold) MUST have a contrast ratio of 4.5 to 1 with the background.
Large text and images of large text (over 18 pt or 14pt bold) must have a contrast ratio of at least 3 to 1 with the background.
Color Analysis tools:
Hannah showed us color analysis tools such as the Chrome extension, Color Contrast Analyzer, and Adobe Color.
The primer closed with this quote from the Institute for Human Centered Design”
“Just remember that preference for design style is subjective, but readability and legibility are not.”
Design.able will be running more workshops in the future.
https://www.instagram.com/design.able/
https://engage.gsd.harvard.edu/organization/design-able
