Accessibility, explained
The ideas behind accessible reading, explained in plain English — what each thing is, how it works, and who it helps. Every page has something you can try.
Fonts & typography
- Letter, word and line spacing Extra space between letters, words, and lines eases visual crowding — and unlike special fonts, spacing has consisten... Fonts & typography
- Lexend Lexend is a free font family offered in a series of measured widths, built on the finding that many people read bette... Fonts & typography
- Line length and the ideal measure Typographers call the width of a text column its measure, and about 45 to 75 characters per line has been the comfort... Fonts & typography
- OpenDyslexic OpenDyslexic is a free, open-source font with heavy letter bottoms and distinct letter shapes, designed so that simil... Fonts & typography
Color & vision
- Color blindness: the types explained Color blindness is not seeing in gray — it is having one of the eye's three color sensors weakened or missing, and ea... Color & vision
- Colored overlays and visual stress A colored overlay is a tint laid over text, used by readers who find plain black-on-white glary or unstable — helpful... Color & vision
Reading
- Immersive Reader Immersive Reader is Microsoft's free reading view — a quiet full-screen page with big text, syllable breaks, and read... Reading
- Reader mode and Readability Reader mode is the button that turns a cluttered article into clean, quiet text — an idea that started as a 2009 expe... Reading
- Reading rulers and typoscopes A reading ruler is a guide that keeps your place on the line — a classroom tool of card and colored plastic that tran... Reading
Speech & audio
- How text to speech works Text to speech turns writing into a voice in three steps — work out what the words are, decide how they should sound,... Speech & audio
- Voice typing: how dictation works Voice typing listens to your speech, turns the sound into likely words with a trained model, and keeps revising its g... Speech & audio
How people read differently
- ADHD and reading online ADHD makes sustained attention expensive, and the modern web is built to spend it — so the most useful reading tools ... How people read differently
- Dyslexia and reading on screens Dyslexia is a common difference in how the brain processes written words — and on screens, unlike paper, the reader c... How people read differently
Standards & law
- ADA Title II and web accessibility In 2024 the US Department of Justice made it explicit: state and local government websites and apps must meet WCAG 2.... Standards & law
- WCAG explained in plain English WCAG is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — the shared rulebook for making websites usable by disabled people,... Standards & law
