Accessibility: Spacing

Why Is This Important?

Spacing directly affects readability, comprehension and accessibility. Using proper spacing allows people to read faster and more accurately. It also works better with assistive technology, improving screen reader navigation, preserving the logical reading order and prevents misinterpretation of content.

When To Use It

Anytime you are creating, documents, emails, newsletters, instructions, policies, reports, forms, guides, web content, and presentation slides.

How To Use It

Line spacing should be a minimum of 1.15 or greater.
Use spacing between paragraphs.
Leave extra space before and after Headings.

Avoid:

Manual spacing (which can confuse screen readers).

Best Practices

General

Use short paragraphs.
Use consistent spacing throughout.
Allow space between sections.
Avoid crowding text with images or tables.

Documents and PDFs

Use document styles (Titles, Headings, Normal Text, etc.).
Maintain consistent margins.
Run the built-in accessibility checker.
Avoid scanning dense text into PDFs.
- This can confuse the screen readers for reading order. Keeping a word document and locking the text into place can act as a PDF if you have large text blocks.

Email

Use short paragraphs (1-3 lines).
Avoid long walls of text.
Continue to use 1.15 or greater spacing throughout.
See Accessibility: Email for more information.

Presentations

Limit text per slide.
Use 1.15 or greater spacing.
Use one main idea per slide.

Tips for Checking Accessibility

Outlook has the same properties as Microsoft Word, allowing you to edit the spacing.
- Note: there is not a current application to keep line spacing the same throughout every email you create. To make line spacing greater, you will need to manually alter it for every email.
Rather than separating ideas with a space, use "Add Space After Paragraph" or "Add Space Before Paragraph" to achieve the same effect without confusing a screen reader.

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Accessibility: Spacing