Use lower and upper case letters appropriately
Accessibility
The use of appropriate lower and upper case letters makes text much more recognizable, legible, and accessible.
Reason
- To some people with a learning disability who would ordinarily still find it easy to read a piece of text, it is confusing to have capital letters suddenly in the place of sentence case. We discuss this in the Accessibility Bank entry on
- This is a good example of how something that adds a challenge to those with disabilities also hinders people who do not. You can have been reading for fifty years and still be thrown off by the sudden appearance of all capitals.
- Additionally, the latin, or western, alphabet is not everyone’s first reading/writing system. It is easier to read words as you come to expect to see them. Many words present far fewer visual cues in their shape when printed in all caps than when rendered in lower case, for example this word in all caps HOLIEST as opposed to in lower case: holiest
This can be seen in this image:
Best practice
Use all capitalized for items such as acronyms (NATO), Abbreviations (C.B.C.), or products/services that are branded with upper case only.
Example of less accessible practices
- The use of upper case to make a point – you can simply use bolded text instead where necessary
- Sudden change to all caps when elsewhere they were sentence or title case, for example on a page like this:
- The prolonged use of all caps anywhere. Not only is it less accessible, it really FEELS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING AT ME. For example, here is a pice of writing from the first setion of this page:
TO SOME PEOPLE WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY WHO WOULD ORDINARILY STILL FIND IT EASY TO READ A PIECE OF TEXT, IT IS CONFUSING TO HAVE CAPITAL LETTERS SUDDENLY IN THE PLACE OF SENTENCE CASE. WE DISCUSS THIS IN THE ACCESSIBILITY BANK ENTRY ABOUT… etc.
- and some words maybe read by a screen reader as an acronym.
Additional benefits
- Usability: A page with text not marred by inappropriate use of upper case lettering will hold the attention of users.
- SEO: Use of correct type of lettering for the appropriate words will enable the page to be ranked more highly. For example, if the text has the word JET in all capitals, it might be harder to discern if the page is about the popular Japanese Exchange and Teaching program, or the type of engine used on planes.
- Marketing: As a university, we say a lot about ourselves and our standards if text is rendered in an appropriate manner.
What WCAG says
(Be sure to learn more about errors and alerts.)
From WCAG:
“Text in all capital letters is more difficult to read for most people, with and without disabilities.”