Accessible text styling is one of the 10 fundamental concepts that can support digital accessibility in all of your content.
Accessible text styling helps make digital content easier to see and read. The font style, size, and case used for text can greatly affect the legibility of a website or document.
Use common, preferably sans serif, fonts for paragraph text. Examples of sans serif fonts include Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Roboto, and Verdana.
Overuse of text styles reduces the legibility of text. Try to use no more than three different fonts in a design or document.
Keep text styling simple, with minimal bolding, italics, or underlines.
Avoid using all-caps casing. All-caps text produces letters that are all at the same line height, which makes it more difficult to distinguish letters from one another.
- Use plain, preferably sans serif, fonts for paragraph text
- Use at least 12 pt font size
- Keep text styling simple
- Apply title case and sentence case when appropriate; never use all-caps
Fundamentals
Download the checklist
Download our digital accessibility fundamentals checklist PDF to help you keep track of the core principles of accessibility while creating and editing digital resources.
The Center for User Experience
At the Center for User Experience, we are committed to working with you to make digital spaces more accessible, usable and inclusive for all students, faculty and staff at UW–Madison. We help the university follow its Digital Accessibility Policy by offering free evaluation and consultation services to all UW–Madison community members. For guidance on complying with digital accessibility requirements, visit Digital accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Get in touch
- Meet with us: Book a quick chat with one of our team members to ask any questions you have.
- Start a project with us: We support accessible design and development. Fill out our Let’s Connect form to begin working with us on your project or to request an accessibility evaluation.
- Email us: Not sure if you’re ready to meet? Email us to start talking and figure out what to do next.