Accessibility: Text Treatments
The way we format our text can really help users be able to understand our content much faster and independently.
Capitalizing Text
Using capitalized text should be avoided whenever possible.
When to Use Capitalization
- Abbreviations
- Acronyms
- Short phrases
When Not to Use Capitalization
- Full Sentences
- Full paragraphs
- As a way to grab the users attention
User Impact
Capitalized text can force some assistive technology to read the text one letter at a time which can be hard to understand if it is whole sentences or paragraphs. Use Capitalization only when necessary and find different ways to bring users attention to your text.
Text Alignment
Text should always be aligned left or center.
User Impact
Justifying your text makes the spacing uneven and can cause users to not be able to read and understand your content as easily. Keeping the text aligned left or center preserves the letter and word spacing which allows for users to read the content faster and can process the content more easily.
Aligning your text to the right will preserve the letter and word spacing but will take longer to process as it is opposite of how the English language reads. Only use right alignment of text when the text is in a different language that is read from right to left.
What Alignment Should I Use:
- Left Alignment
- Center Alignment
What Alignment Shouldn’t I Use:
- Justified Alignment
- Right Alignment
Using Italics
Only use italics when you need to bring attention to something that is important and need emphasis.
User Impact
Overusing italics will make your content hard to comprehend for users with assistive technology as when italics is used it will be announced to the user that it is important. If huge sections of text are marked as italics verses individual phrases or small sections of text then the user could become confused with the assistive technology constantly announcing things are important.