Hi
for what it worth the RNIB information recommends sans serif based font as
beneficial for those with low vision. This is on the basis that when you
magnify the text, or read it in large print, it is easier to read if you do
not have to contend with the flourishes on each letter - the serif is the
bit that is a stylised version of the end of a pen stroke making the shape
of the letter. I guess if you want an extreme example think of the serifs on
the capital letters of ancient manuscripts that have been illuminated by
scholars - whilst they are an art form in themselves they are unreadable.
the curls and sweeps run into one another and make it harder to distinguish
individual letters. So "sans" (without) serif should be easier for both
headings and main body text. Also bad practice is all capitals as people
find it easier to determine letter shapes in lower case. Also avoid left and
right hand justification as this spreads the gaps between letters and words
out to make the line of text evenly fill the space between the two margins,
again harder to determine the letter groupings if they are incorrectly space
in relation to the word groupings. This will of course help dyslexic
students as well as those quickly scanning documents and people for whom the
western alphabet is not an element of there first language.
Finally I lesson we have learnt through experience is that inverted commas
are read by screen reading software differently than you might expect. So if
you place single inverted commas around a word to emphasise it most screen
reading software cannot interpret it and want to try to make it an
apostrophe instead. We have started to avoid single inverted commas wherever
possible and use double inverted commas if really needed to show quotations
and emphasis.
cheers
marcus
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