Dyslexia Style Guide.

Offer Word files.

Word files are the easiest for individual viewing preferences and for listening. We can
create accessible alternative formats from well-formatted Word files. These include
printed documents, web pages, PDF files, plain text, DAISY books and audio files.
Offer PDF files.
Portable Document Format files keep the presentation better than Word files, but are
not as easy to use. Therefore, we suggest offering both the source Word files and
derived PDF files where possible.
Improve the original files.
Do make the source files as accessible as possible. This is much easier than
amending, editing or converting them at a later stage. Users of electronic versions
should be able to set their own preferences for viewing and for listening.
Publicise availability.
People should not have to ask for alternative formats. All published print documents
should have a clearly visible note in at least 14-point type, at the front.

"This document is available electronically (to password

holders where applicable), at xxxxxxxxxxx."
Offer alternative formats.
Other versions should be available at the same time and the same price as printed
publications, as recommended by the Right to Read Alliance.
Remember.
Visual reading may take a long time and listening takes even longer. Keep
documents as short as possible. Please listen to your files and mark them to speak
as you would say them.
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1. Enable user preferences.

This is essential.
Viewers of Word, PDFs and web pages should be able to choose font size
and style; font and background colour and use Zooming. Security of PDF
files or poorly designed websites may inhibit preferences and listening.

2. Presentation.

Cream, or off-white, good quality, matt paper.

Some people use coloured overlays or coloured lenses, so stay neutral.
Glossy paper (and white boards) cause glare.

Sans-serif fonts, at least 12 point.

e.g. Arial, Verdana and Comic Sans.

Left-justify only. Line spacing 1.5. Short lines.

Right-justified text creates 'rivers of white' of the extra spaces.
Line spacing of at least 1.5. Line spaces between paragraphs.
Line lengths 60 to 70 characters, but do not space letters more widely.

Indentation, bullet points, manual numbering.

These break up blocks of text. Numbering helps navigation but
text-readers do not all say automated numbers.

3. Formatting.

Styles to set headings in Word.

Headings will show in Word outline and PDF bookmarks as summaries
and for navigation.

Internal and External hyperlinks for navigation.

These also operate in derived PDF files and web pages.

Page numbering. Start from the first page.

It is good for PDF page numbers to tally with the document page numbers.

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4. Writing Styles. Do use:

Simple, active, short sentences.

Avoid passive sentences. 'We suggest' rather than 'It is suggested that'.
Try not to let sentences start at the ends of lines.

Charts, graphs.
These are good visually, providing you can hear the words.

Full terms not initial letters.

It is hard to refer back to the first conventional instance of the full term or
to a glossary. If you must use initial letters, put stops in those with vowels,
e.g. O.B.E., R.N.I.B., I.C.T. Text-readers say OBE, RNIB, ICT as words.

Lowercase letters, with initial capitals when relevant.

Mixed case words are easier for visual readers than capitalised blocks.
This applies to posters and notices as well.

Bold, not italics or underlining. Borders not text-boxes.

Put borders round sections instead of text-boxes. Listeners to Word have
to click on each text-box.

Tabulation, not tables.

Tables in Word are difficult for listeners. Each cell repeats indefinitely.

Stops to make the voice pause and drop in tone.

Punctuation after headings, sub-headings, numbers and bullet points to
help free text-readers, particularly Adobe Reader Read Out Loud.
Put stops in e.g., i.e., etc., or they will be read as words.

Hyphens in compound words.

Hyphens help visual readers and text-reader pronunciation for listeners.
but do not let Word put artificial hyphenation at line ends, e.g. 'operation'.

Chunked phone numbers.

Text-readers say long numbers as millions and hundreds of thousands.

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5. Writing Styles. Don't use:

Long dashes, short dashes.

Long dashes do not make the voice pause. Use colons.
Write what you would say for e.g. '11-14 years', i.e. '11 to 14 years'.

Slashes, asterisks, Roman numerals, 'No.' for 'Number'.

Text-readers say 'slash', 'asterisk', 'ii 'as 'aye aye', and 'No'.

Single curly or slanting quotation marks.

Some text-readers say 'back quote'.

Text in images. Listeners cannot hear it.

Web pages can say a very brief description in alt tags. (In Word, right click
on the image, click 'format picture' and 'web'. This is important for visually
impaired people.).

6. Readability. Use Word facility.

Flesch Reading Ease test.

Aim for a score between 60 and 70 the higher the better.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test.

Aim for a score of approximately 5.0, which is the reading level of an
average 10 year old.

7. Long documents.

Short titles for chapters or articles.

These are more suitable for pdf bookmarks than long titles.

Use Contents lists in Word.

Formatted headings in Word can create an automated Table Of Contents
(TOC) with internal links. These may not operate in pdfs, but they are not
needed when there are pdf bookmarks. For manual Contents lists, use the
same wording for titles in the contents list and in the articles.

4.

Complete pages and articles.

Do not start a new page in mid-sentence.
Do not insert other items, e.g. advertisements, in mid-article.
Do not go across two pages. Headings or images across 2 pages,
e.g. a centre spread, are difficult to see on a screen.

Number files and documents.

When there is a batch of files, e.g. for an AGM, or sections of a book,
number the files and the documents, and give them the same names, to
keep them in sequence and for easy reference.

8. Web design.

Internet options and accessibility features.

There are many options. Webs should facilitate these. e.g. whether links
are underlined and the use of Control + and Control for text size.

Navigation should be easy.

A site map is essential. Hyperlinks are better at the ends of sentences.
The appearance of links should indicate which ones a user has visited.

Avoid scrolling text.

Moving text creates problems for people with visual difficulties.
Listeners cannot hear scrolling text.

Use visuals.
Graphics, images, and pictures break up text. Enable listeners to hear alt
tags for visuals.

Offer Print view.

Print view versions may be easier for visual readers and listeners.

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9. Software.
Text-readers read the page content. Screen-readers can also read items on
Navigation bars and Formatting Styles and file names. There are many free text to
speech applications. They include the following:

Free WordTalk text-reader can highlight Word text as it reads.

http://www.wordtalk.org.uk

Free Adobe Reader Read Out Loud text-reader for PDFs.

http://www.adobe.com

Free Thunder screen-reader can read PDF bookmarks.

http://www.screenreader.net

Free Open Office Writer can create pdf files,

Open Word files in Writer and save as pdfs, opting to create bookmarks
that display automatically. http://www.openoffice.org

Free Web Browser readers.

Opera and Firefox have their own free text-readers.
Browsealoud, ReadSpeaker, Dixerit and Textic Talklets are free to users,
(paid for by web-owners). They do not read Word files; they do not all read
pdf files. Users may prefer their own text-readers or screen-readers.]

Bought screen-readers with many other useful facilities.

Dyslexic children use Textease, Write OutLoud, and Penfriend.
Older dyslexics use ClaroRead, Read & Write Gold and Kurzweil 3000.
These are all available from http://www.BDAstore.org.uk

Adobe InDesign for complex publications.

Designers can make PDFs with good navigation and sensible reading
order within pages for listening.

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10. References.

Abilitynet:
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/myway

BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility

BDA Accessible Formats Policy:

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk

JISC TechDis Accessibility Essentials:

http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_20

Plain English Campaign:

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk

Right to Read Alliance:

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsi
te/public_r2ralliance.hcsp

LexDis:
http://www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk/hints/index.php

WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool:

http://wave.webaim.org

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