RE: Font accessibility

  *   That much said - legibility as such is a usability aspect not an accessibility aspect. Accessibility rules though could build on top of usability aspects and require a heighten degree of usability.

I'd say legibility is an accessibility issue because it affects people with disabilities at a disproportional level.  A font that is legible for a fully sighted person may be totally unusable by someone with low vision.  I think the reason this has not been addressed for web content is that historically browsers have provided the ability for users to apply their own styles and fonts and thus this has allowed these issues to become more usability type issues.  However there are situations where the user cannot overwrite the font such as embedded content, native content, print content, etc.  there is also a trend away from user agents allowing user level style sheets and pages also preventing extensions like Stylish to add document level styles.

Jonathan
From: Olaf Drümmer <olaflist@callassoftware.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 5:12 AM
To: Gian Wild <gian@accessibilityoz.com>; w3c WAI List <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Cc: Olaf Drümmer <olaflist@callassoftware.com>
Subject: Re: Font accessibility

Some fonts are more legible than others. This has been addressed by various standards, for example in the field of ergonomics and also in the context of regulation for labels on food or pharmaceutical items.

That much said - legibility as such is a usability aspect not an accessibility aspect. Accessibility rules though could build on top of usability aspects and require a heighten degree of usability.

It is important to understand that legibility rules depends a lot on context: viewing distance, amount of text, purpose of the information conveyed, etc. A long text benefits from a different font than the four letters 'STOP' on a stop sign.


Olaf


On 21. Jun 2018, at 10:58, Gian Wild <gian@accessibilityoz.com<mailto:gian@accessibilityoz.com>> wrote:

Hi

Does anyone have some research or evidence about the accessibility of different fonts? We have come across a very thin-lined font and we have been asked for proof that it is harder to read than normal font.

Thanks
Gian

(Sorry for cross-posting)

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