Everyone needs reminding to stay safe, so as part of the project we decided to design the ‘Be VR Aware’ classroom posters.
We produced two versions of the poster, one of which has been designed according to accessibility principles. Both versions can be found in Resources.
Emojis representing specific safety aspects, combined with simple text, allow students with lower literacy levels to understand the safety messages. For learners with good literacy, the use of visual representation with text allows for a dual coding of the information during cognition, helping the learner to better recall the message.
The accessible version has the black background. It reflects advice from Vision Australia and the UK Government. The text used in the posters is predominately Verdana, a Sans Serif font, which is ideal for readability.
We used plain English, avoiding colloquialisms and complicated phrasing. The text colour is white for maximum contrast against the black background. To test this we used the colour contrast check available at snook.ca. The background is simple and black to provide a contrast with the white text. Complicated backgrounds are not recommended for accessibility purposes. Black was used as it allows the simple colours of the emojis to stand out. It is also recommended for use for people who are colour blind. The tool available at vischeck.com was used to test this.
Please let us know what you think of the posters or if you use them.
Erica Southgate, VR Enthusiast and Associate Professor of Education, University of Newcastle, Australia