Accessibility

Based on the perspective of Designing Cities for All, we aim to create accessible content and equal access to information for everyone. With gathered knowledge from our own (lived) experience, that of our community and online resources that help designers create accessible print materials, we made this publication. The following is not intended and should not be regarded as a sole and comprehensive resource for accessibility, but hopefully, it inspires you to apply this to your own (print) design as well.

First of all, we consider language a matter of design. As a society, we still use ableist, colonial, transphobic, homophobic and gender-inequal language in our daily speech. We aimed to avoid using euphemisms and problematic idioms. When it comes to the graphic design, we used a readable typeface with a 12 point font size for body text and a 9 point font size for footnotes, because smaller fonts may be illegible for some audiences. To help you find your way through the body text, we often used headers. We made sure each line didn’t exceed 60 characters to not tire the eyes (the use of matte finish paper also helps) and all texts are left-aligned to make them easier to read. The distance between each word is the same to make the book better readable for those with, for example, dyslexia. For the ones among us with low vision and cognitive disabilities, we used white space throughout the design to improve the visual layout.

Did you know that the most sustainable book size is 170x240mm? That’s because you can print 16 pages on one sheet of paper and are left with zero paper waste. We not only opted for this because it’s a better choice for future generations, but also because it is user-friendly for people with fine motor disabilities. Additionally, we’ve paid attention to the binding and used a method that makes it easy to flatten the document when using screen magnifiers and when reading without using your hands.

The result? A book that works better for all!

If you’d like to read More Perspectives on Designing Cities for All with audio, you can download a PDF version of this book. Use your preferred text-to-speech audio reader to create your own DCFA listening experience.

Throughout this essay book, you find several book tips. At Athenaeum Bookstore you get a 10% discount on non-Dutch publications with the discount code DCFA2122 – enjoy!

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