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Welcome to our January issue of the Accessibility Minute Newsletter! This newsletter is produced by the CU Boulder Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) and covers one accessibility skill or topic per month. Please visit the DAO website to access past newsletters. As always, thank you for taking a minute (or two) to read.

Visual Style

To continue our "back to basics" series, this month's newsletter will discuss the use of visual style. Visual Style refers to any visual formatting of digital content. This includes the use of:

• Italics
• Bold
• Underline
• Punctuation
• Spatial positioning or text spacing
• Color

It’s vital to ensure that visual style is not the only way meaning is conveyed. One reason for this recommendation is that color and style may not be available to those who cannot see the screen. For example, blind or low vision screen reader users may miss the intended meaning conveyed by visual style if it’s not also communicated in another way, such as written text. Additionally, people who are color blind may not be able to distinguish certain colors that are used to convey meaning, such as red for “no” and green for “yes.”

We want to stress that using visual style is acceptable as long as it is not the only way meaningful information is conveyed. It's important to acknowledge that using visual style in your documents or websites can be very helpful for some people to access content. For example, individuals with ADHD may find bold text helpful for signaling what content is important amid large blocks of text, or color-coded calendars for quickly organizing priority items or deadlines. As it may be helpful for some, we want to ensure it is accessible to all!

Scenarios: How Would You Remove the Accessibility Barrier?

Read the following 2 scenarios and try to consider how you could remove the accessibility barrier presented by using visual style as meaning. While there are many ways to remove the barriers presented in each scenario, we’ve outlined some possible solutions. We encourage you to come up with your own solutions before reading our suggestions!

Scenario 1: You created a form with a few required questions, which you’ve indicated with red text. You later find out that your coworker is color blind and is unable to distinguish which questions are required. What could you do to ensure that your coworker knows exactly which questions they are required to complete?

Scenario 1 solution: The easiest way to remove the barrier is to add the word “(required)” at the end or beginning of each question when necessary. Although it is common to see the use of asterisks to indicate a required question, it is best to use a text explanation instead of asterisks, as assistive technologies may not interpret them properly. You may keep the text red but make sure it passes color contrast standards against the background color ().

Scenario 2: You create a quiz question that reads, “Which italicized words are misspelled in this passage?” Many students, including two with low vision, report having difficulty deciphering which words are italicized. What could you do to resolve this issue for your students?

Scenario 2 solution: One easy option is to keep the passage as is and add a list of the italicized words below it so that all students know which words need to be examined for misspellings. Another option is to remove the passage and recreate it as a multiple-choice question asking, “Which word or words are misspelled?” Italics can be difficult to read for individuals with low vision, dyslexia, or other print disabilities; they are often not announced by assistive technology, and it can be difficult to distinguish when the font is very similar, whether italicized or not.

Reserve Underlining for Links

A common inaccessible use of visual style is underlining text. It's best to reserve underlined text for links only. Because most users associate underlined text with clickable links, when underlined text isn’t interactive (not a clickable link), it creates confusion between expectation and functionality. Also, in most cases, link text automatically changes to a different color. While the change in color may be helpful for some, an individual with color blindness who relies on underlined text to indicate links may assume they are broken.

Avoid Mimicking Headings

Visual style (such as bold and increased font size) is often used to visually mark the title of each section in a document/website. While that may help visual readers quickly jump from section to section, content creators must ensure the section titles are programmatically marked as headings so that they can be detected by assistive technologies, making them accessible to all readers. Fun fact: Programmatic headings can be used by all users, as most platforms will create an outline that allows for quick navigation from one heading to the next.

DAO News

Congratulations to our very incredible student employee, Elle Kartchner, who received the honorable mention award for the Critical Thinking category at the Student Employee of the Year Luncheon. Elle is graduating this spring with a degree in Creative Technology & Design and has been part of the DAO since the fall semester of her freshman year. She has been an invaluable member of our team!