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Creating Accessible Educational Materials

Overview

In order for text to be accessible, the font should not exclude any readers, nor slow down the reading speed of any website visitor, including those with visual impairments and reading disorders.

It is important to pick a font that is simple, unembellished and clear. Top accessibility fonts include: Tahoma, Calibri, Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman.

Size and Color

  • Your font size should be large for people to comfortably read. 16pt is a good font size. Having an electronic version of your documents available will allow a user to increase the size of text if needed. 
  • Maintain a line length that supports comfortable reading. Don’t make lines too long or too short: 45-75 characters per line is acceptable and approximately 66 characters per line is comfortable. Shorter pieces of text are fine for captions, marginal text, and forms. 
  • Use bright colors or high-contrast color schemes on opposite ends of the color spectrum. White and black schemes make it easier for people who are colorblind to classify text and shapes.

How to Implement

PowerPoint - 

  • Single Slide - 
    • To change the font for a single paragraph or a phrase, select the text that you want to change; Or to change the font for all the text in a placeholder, either select all the text in the placeholder, or click the placeholder. 
    • On the Home tab, in the Font group, select a font in the Font list.

  • Entire Presentation (not available on the web) 

    • On the View tab, in the Master Views group, click Slide Master. 

    • In the left pane that contains the slide masters and layouts, click the slide master thumbnail or layout that contains the font that you want to change. 

    • On the slide master or layout, click the title text or the level of body text that you want to apply a new font style to. 

    • On the Slide Master tab, in the Background group, click Fonts, and then select a font from the list.

Word 

  • Editing Fonts 
    • In the Home tab, click on the Font Dialog Box Launcher  Button image, then select the font and size. 
  • Change Font and Size Default 
    • In the same Font Dialog Box Launcher, click on "Set As Default" on the bottom left of the box, then select either "this document only" or "All documents based on the Normal template" and click ok twice. 

Canvas and Study

  • Editing Fonts 
    • Highlight the text you want to customize 
    • Click Format and select the desired style.