Inclusive communication design: The leserlich.info website

Zwei Expertinnen des DBSV begutachten gemeinsam mit Florian Adler verschiedene Layout-Muster für das Mitgliedermagazin, die auf einem großen Tisch ausgebreitet sind.
 

Development project with the German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (DBSV)

Communication is essential for life. We need to communicate to find our way in the world and to participate in society. This is why free access to information is a key requirement in the United Nation’s Disability Rights Convention, which entered into force in 2009. Figures from the WHO show that around one million people in Germany live with visual impairment that means they have less than 30 percent of their vision, even if they use visual aids.

Workshop

Teamwork: adlerschmidt collaborated with experts from the DBSV to develop guidelines for inclusive communication design.
Photo: Adrienne Stöppler

leserlich.info

leserlich.info is an online, digital guide to inclusive communication design for people with and without visual impairment. Depending on their individual circumstances, people will have different needs regarding font, text and image design, print substrates, and the design and usability of digital media.
The website provides practical help in the form of recommendations on typefaces, sizing, spacing, layout, contrast and materials. It also explains background information and lists resources for exploring the topic in more detail.

In addition, interactive calculators allow users to work out the ideal font size and colour values for individual projects.

Resources

Guidance on readable design can be found scattered across the literature and in standards (in particular the DIN 1450 standard on legibility and lettering). However, designers rarely feel that standards are addressed to them, and tend to see them as “creativity killers”. With that in mind, we have collected the existing knowledge and organised it into six themes according to various factors and areas of application. After 18 months of working on the project with people affected by the most common eye disorders and with accessibility experts from the DBSV, we developed concrete, practical work aids for communication and media designers.

Implementation

Our recommendations for inclusive communication design were tested, evaluated and reformulated as best-practice examples using the DBSV’s website and it members’ magazine “Sichtweisen” . The results show that inclusive design can be as attractive as it is accessible.

Abbildung der Startseite des neuen Webauftritts des DBSV auf einem PC, einem Tablet und einem Smartphone.
The DBSV's new home page as it appears on PCs, tablets and smartphones

Presse

  • Communication design for people with and without visual impairment
    
www.designtagebuch.de, 15 May 2017
    Read the article (in German)

  • Making reading easier
    novum graphic design, 08/2017
    Read the article (in German)

  • Design for people with impaired vision can also be attractive
    www.page-online.de, 20 April 2017
    Read the article (in German)