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Clear Print | Accessibility Guidelines

accessibility image on keyboard

Southern Health-Santé Sud is committed to provide equal access and participation for all people, regardless of their abilities. We embrace the opportunity to identify, remove and prevent accessibility barriers.

Derived from Southern Health-Santé Sud’s overarching Accessibility Action Plan, this section focuses the ‘Information & Communications Standard’ and establishes best practices and requirements to create, provide and receive bilingual information and communications in ways that are accessible for people with disabilities. This section is pertinent for information published in print, digitally and online.

The need to focus on Clear Print Guidelines has become increasingly relevant as word processing and desktop publishing applications allow you to create eye-catching content which can often be inaccessible to many readers due to over design, as well as over use of colours and typefaces. By creating publications with a clear structure and layout and using a clear typeface, we can produce stunning documents that will be much more readable.

The information contained in the following pages will support ways to improve the accessibility of your publications, identifying regional guidelines and established best practices.

Resources

General Standards of Practice

  1. Readability Level: as a general rule, information for the general public is written in plain language and aims for a Grade 6-8 reading level procedure for how to test readability level.
  2. Accessibility Disclaimer: the following statement is added to publications in close proximity to the contact information.
    English: This publication is available in alternate format upon request.
    French: La présente publication peut être obtenue dans d’autres formats, sur demande.
    Requests for alternate formats received by Southern Health-Santé Sud when required to meet Accessibility Standards are directed to: Karen Cruise 204-424-6028 x2938 or
  3. Translation: as a designated bilingual SDO, all documents intended for the general public are published in both official languages. Per Translation policy, content is translated professionally. General editing / translation principles are reflected in Editing principles to help keep published information consistent.

Font (Typefaces)

The font you use greatly impacts the readability and accessibility of your document. Consider using:

  • a good standard default font size ranging from 12 to14 points, acknowledging that some larger fonts such as ‘Century Gothic’ may be appropriate to publish in 11 points; consider the audience when choosing a point size
  • sans serif fonts for body content as characters are easier to distinguish for those with reading difficulties or a visual impairment:
font examples
  • serif fonts (ending in a curl or stroke at the end of each character) for headings or sub headings:
font examples
  • two or less different fonts per document (one for headings and another style for the body content); be consistent across your entire document
  • a medium font weight for body content
  • font styles that are not too decorative; choose styles that have easily-recognizable letterforms; fonts produced in a
font examples
  • fonts with appropriate height ratio:
    • the height ratio of a font (relatively equal width-to-height ratios) is critical in determining the overall legibility; height ratio (also known as ‘x’ height) is defined as the height of a lower case “x”
    • fonts with tall x-heights are easier to read because they appear larger when viewed at the same point size than those with shorter x-heights – for example:
font examples

Colour

Colour contrast between the font colour and the background can impact those with a visual impairment. Some colour contrasts are particularly beneficial to those who are dyslexic or have learning difficulties.

Considerations when using colour in your publication:

  • Look for at least 70% difference in colour value between the type and background tone.
  • TIP: to inspect your document for good colour contrast, save your publication in PDF format. Open your pdf file and choose menu options: File, Print, Properties, select black and white, Ok, Print. If type and other graphic elements appear to blend together too much, return to your authoring application (where you created your publication) and improve the contrast ratio by adjusting colour values.
  • Print on different coloured paper and/or choose paper or printing materials that minimize glare (use matte or uncoated finish rather than glossy stock)

Design | Layout

Consider design and layout decisions that influence the readability of your publication:

  • arrange information in manageable chunks
    • use bullets when appropriate
    • incorporate headings and subheadings to help carve out sections so information is more easily understood
    • introduce FAQ sections as needed
  • be culturally-appropriate – both in script and with visual illustrations
  • have adequate white space with attention to
    • left aligned text is preferred
    • adequate column widths
    • ensure your script is not too squished – horizontal and vertical spacing adjustments can be applied to increase or decrease space:
      • from the font menu, select Advanced, Kerning for fonts (horizontal space between characters) and Spacing (horizontal spaces between words) – these settings offer adjustments to make your text more readable
      • from the paragraph menu, select Indents and spacing – these settings offer adjustments to the vertical distance between lines to make your publication more readable
  • use hyperlinks to provide a meaningful description instead of a website address
  • avoid using:
    • blocks of text in CAPITALS, italics, or underlined in body content
    • hyphenation as it affects readability interrupting the flow of text for readers with dyslexia or learning difficulties: to disable, from the paragraph menu, select Line and page breaks, select Don’t hyphenate
  • incorporate effective images/graphics with careful consideration of placement:
    • strategically place images/graphics and allow for space between the text and the image; text wrap around images should be left of the image where possible; avoid having text run over images
    • ensure images and graphics have good colour contrast and good resolution

Readability | Accessibility Levels in Publications

Measured using standardized formulas and guidelines, with a common goal of making content understandable to a broad audience, most public-facing materials aim for a 6th to 8th grade reading level. Readability refers to the ease with which a reader can understand a written text, determined by factors such as vocabulary complexity and sentence structure. Accessibility involves ensuring content can be accessed and understood by everyone, including people with print or learning disabilities, and is often tied to guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). 

Readability procedure on how to get your documents readability level statistics.

Accessibility Resources

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