Better, More Accessible Typography — Improve Readability for All Users

Scheduled at 9:00 am in Colorado G-H on Wednesday, November 13.

#39636

Speaker(s)

  • Bevi Chagnon, Designer, Senior Accessibility Trainer, PubCom.com

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 2-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Text is crucial for communication. And readable, legible, accessible text is the foundation for any accessible website, document, PDF, or other digital media file. Bevi Chagnon — an award-winning designer and former typesetter — gives practical ways to choose the best typefaces for your project and discusses how to set type like a pro that maximizes readability. With a couple hundred thousand fonts archived on her studio’s file server, her colleagues long ago knick-named her The Font Fairy.

Abstract

Type. Fonts. License rights. Missing glyphs. Character encoding. Unicode. Yikes! It can be daunting to choose the right fonts to create the words on our digital screens. Typesetting is a complex part of accessibility that depends on much more than just using whatever fonts found on your computer. The Font Fairy will show how she breaks down all of the requirements and technicalities into a step-by-step system that helps you choose the best fonts for your digital media and print projects.

    Topics include:

  • Features of legible fonts.
  • Glyph sets and how to determine what you need.
  • How to choose the right font for your project.
  • Fonts for foreign languages, accents, and diacritical marks.
  • Fonts for setting maths and STEM material.
  • Unicode character encoding: what is it and why it’s important for accessible text.
  • Licensing rights and how to avoid additional (exorbitant) fees.
  • Using the right character. Test: what’s the difference between these 4 “dashes” - – — and ? ? And why does it matter for accessibility?
  • How to set good typography to maximize readability — and accessibility.

Taught by The Font Fairy (Bevi Chagnon), an award-winning art director, designer, accessibility maven, and former typesetter, this session also includes design hacks and tips that produce great design + accessibility.

Keypoints

  1. All participants receive The Font Fairy’s template for testing and choosing fonts.
  2. Understanding Unicode, licensing, font technologies are required for accessible media.
  3. Good typography maximizes readability and accessibility for all users.

Disability Areas

All Areas

Topic Areas

Accessible Course Design, Assistive Technology, Teaching about Accessibility in Curriculum, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Bevi Chagnon

Bevi Chagnon has been active in the standards community for 25 years, and currently is a US Delegate to the ISO committees for PDF and PDF/UA. With a long career in publishing, she’s an expert for Adobe InDesign, Acrobat, MS Office, and accessibility. She’s a professional educator, award-winning designer, and former faculty member at Washington DC-area colleges/universities. Bevi is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, and a contributor on many forums, including the Adobe Community Forums where she is an invited Community Expert.

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