Formatting Changes for O41 Print Publications 

There are things we can do to make our print publications more accessible to our low vision and dyslexic readers. I've spent some time doing research about industry standards and recommendations from advocacy groups. Keeping those suggestions in mind, along with our budget constraints, I've come up with a style guide that I implemented in the O41 print publications.

 

Research Sources:

• Large Print Standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-print
• Best Practices and Guidelines for Large Print Documents used by the Low Vision Community https://www.acb.org/large-print-guidelines
• American Printing House for the Blind Style Guide https://www.aph.org/research/design-guidelines/ 
• Good Fonts for Dyslexia http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/good_fonts_for_dyslexia_study.pdf 

 

These are the general guidelines (I recommend signage adopt these suggestions as well) :

• Size - 14pt font where ever possible. 12pt font for "small text"
• Font Type - Verdana & Times New Roman.  San-serif Verdana is the preferred text. Times New Roman can be used for larger headings. They are standard fonts, compliant for low vision, with good/decent test results for dyslexic readers, and rated well on aesthetic.
• Font Style - Avoid italics (low vision), underline (dyslexia), light versions and all caps (both). Style guide for book/film titles TBD (probably will use different fonts, sizes and  some caps).
• Paragraph styles - No indented paragraphs, use spacing between paragraphs instead. Left justify, with a ragged right edge (no full justify).
• Books need to be able to lay flat. Spiral binding is preferred on the PP.

The impact of these changes:
Making the text larger and using fonts that are easier to read (the letters are rounder and have more space between them) means that the text takes up more space and increases the number of printed pages. To keep as close the $5500 budget as I can, we will use two different printers based on the lowest bid (I've done this before) and will have only a partial color SB (I've also done this before). 

Souvenir Book

• Redesign of the text to 14pt, with dyslexia-friendly fonts.

• Creative Page Layout - SB will be a tight 48 pages. My current draft does a 16 page center of color pages and B&W for the rest of the book. This saves us ~$1500 in printing costs.

• Sections Include - Message from Chair, Policies (short version noted below), Events & Activities, Artist and Dealers list, ConCom, In Memorium, Hours, GoH pages, Ad Swaps, Clayton/Petrey/Andrews/Endeavor ads, 2 pages of Rob Carlos art, Panelist Bios.

• Policy Summaries - To save space (if needed), policies will be shortened in the SB with reference to the website and PP for full text. Will leave the Code of Conduct whole in both books.

• Create HTML Text Version for Website - Large print books are preferred to be 18pt font but that would be too costly. I recommend creating a HTML (in addition to a PDF), mobile-friendly version of the Souvenir Book. This version would be posted to the website for easy viewing on a mobile device that can then be viewed with larger font settings (per the person's browser). I can work with Rose to get the book formatted and published after the files are delivered to the printer. This would also be compatible for users that prefer specific dyslexia fonts already used with their browser.

 

Pocket Program

• Old Format - Past books are ~104 pages, text in the PP has historically been pretty small (7-10pt). I admit to having a hard time reading a 7pt font. 

• New Format - 160 pages, increase to 10-12pt and also use Verdana/Times New Roman. Book size and the amount of information that needs to be on each page makes it difficult to make the font any larger than this.

• Electronic Copy - Because we are already creating an electronic copy of the schedule, I think we can get away with only increasing the text size to 12pt. I recommend that whatever electronic version we use should have the ability to be viewed as larger and custom/dyslexic-friendly fonts.

• New Grid - Larger fonts and in 15min increments takes up more pages (example of format attached).

• Con Policies - As mentioned above, PP will have full versions of the con policies. Paper and printing is cheaper for the PP than SB.

• Remove - To save pages I have taken out the detailed "Events & Activities" section. This is already published in the SB, and could be published in the electronic version of schedule.