Typography is one of the most important design elements of an inclusive digital experience. It is the foundation of an accessible reading experience.
Typography consists of font styles and sizes from different or similar typefaces. It's a part of the design process to place fonts in a way that makes the content clear, readable, legible, aesthetically appealing while conveying the message and emotions as intended.
The wrong choice of typefaces, fonts, hierarchy, and flow etcetera don’t let the users complete the task, or even if they do, it is a “bad user experience". The interface that has been designed to make lives easier turns into a jigsaw jumble of words and why would any designer do that?
Perfect placement of typefaces and fonts in place is not the only solution for people with low vision, cognitive, language, and learning disabilities, aphasia, dyslexia, or low adult literacy. They may still struggle to process the text.
Designing accessible content means more than just making a selection of typefaces, It's about designing with performant fonts that enhance legibility and readability. The below steps are designed to reimagine typography with conscious accessible efforts to make written information as accessible as possible.
The steps in this blog are intended for content clarity, recognition of letters and symbols for everyone. Design processes that include accessibility guidelines and everyone’s needs, other than the only clients’ or designers’ support the needs of people who use the design and ultimately lead to better business.
Accessibility is imperative for building successful, inclusive ethical “user experiences” it includes all aspects of design from - colors, type, layout etcetera.
Accessibility should be a conscious effort from the very beginning and an intentional outcome, not an audit practice. It’s not a separate aspect of design it’s an active part of the design process. Inclusion and accessibility scale design and create a “good user experience” and interfaces that can be used by everyone. As designers, we have to ensure that.