Creator: Registered Graphic Designers
Date Updated: October 21, 2022
This is a robust handbook that contains information, guidelines, education, and tools that are meant to improve the accessibility of digital and print media. The Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) assembled the handbook in collaboration with the Government of Ontario. It also broadly covers digital media and provides information on accessible PDFs, Web Accessibility, Semantic Structure, and much more.
The information is summarized from Access Ability 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design.
- When designing your communications, consider the following:
- The language of your communications. It should be simple, straightforward, and literal (avoid idioms, slang, and jargon).
- The typography of your text. This includes the font, font size, text alignment, etc.
- The colours you use in your communications. Never use only colour to convey the meaning of the text.
- Creating a semantically marked-up website, adding alt text, and making sure you add captions and transcriptions to time-based media are just some methods needed to ensure digital accessibility. Design (your communications, website, etc.) for persons who use assistive technologies (screen readers, magnification software, refreshable braille display, and much more).
- Follow WCAG web accessibility standards and test your website frequently. Always include persons with a diverse range of disabilities using their preferred technologies when testing your website.
- When creating accessible documents, correctly format the structure (headers, page breaks, footnotes, the tag order in PDFs, etc.) of the document is defined correctly.
The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (2019). Access Ability 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design. PDF. Retrieved from: https://www.rgd.ca/database/files/library/_RGD_AccessAbility2_Handbook_AbleDocs.pdf