[Athen] Text readability: can you tell the difference between "rn" and "m"?

Leyna Bencomo lbencomo at uccs.edu
Wed Jan 24 11:13:21 PST 2018


I agree and disagree with Susan. :) I prefer SANS to eliminate all the extra "tiddlies" that mess with my comprehension of words. However, I agree that creating Word documents allows people to change to their own preferences easily. I also believe it is different for every single brain, so we should teach students how to alter fonts and allow them to do that whenever possible. Kerning gets complex and, again, I think it's an individual thing.

Leyna Bencomo
Assistive Technology Specialist
Office of Information Technology
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, EPC 215
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
(719) 255-4202 / lbencomo at uccs.edu<mailto:lbencomo at uccs.edu>
http://www.uccs.edu/~it/
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From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Kelmer
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 11:37 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Text readability: can you tell the difference between "rn" and "m"?

Personally, I default to a serif font. There are mixed opinions about whether sans or serif is better, but for general readability, serif works better (and there's a logical reason for that - it leads the eyes). Serif fonts RARELY show this issue with rn or other combined characters. But most sans fonts have some issues in this area.

This is also why it's important for us to be providing documents that people can change to their liking, whenever possible. A word file - you can always change the font if you don't like it. PDF, not so much.

Just my 2 cents.

Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
University of Colorado Boulder
303-735-4836


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