From the Department of You-Can’t-Make-This-Up comes a new directive from the Trump administration. The official font of the State Department is now “Times New Roman” because adopting Calibri is a “wasteful DEI program.”
Calibri was adopted because some studies show that it’s easier to read for people with certain visual disabilities.
Apparently switching back is not wasteful.
Also interesting, the State Department’s web site’s CSS has “font-family: Open Sans, Arial, Sans-Serif” for their entry content. And their accessibility statement:
The U.S. Department of State is committed to making its Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) accessible to individuals with disabilities by meeting or exceeding the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 794d). Section 508 requires agencies, during the procurement, development, maintenance, or use phases of ICT, to ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to and use of ICT information and data comparable to the access and use afforded to individuals without disabilities (i.e., “ICT accessibility”), unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency.
The fact that such a page even exists must be problematic. As is this other US Government page, which states:
Most print publications use a serif font, one with the small flourishes at the tip of letters such as Times New Roman. With serif fonts being the norm in print, it might seem odd accessibility regulations require sans serif but there is good reason. For people with good vision, a typeface with serifs is slightly easier and faster to read than one without serifs. Typically, for people with low vision, the serifs significantly degrade legibility. The importance of using a sans serif typeface is especially important for digital content since it is typically read on-screen and not in hardcopy print.
It’s okay to use serif fonts for headings or other emphasis. Sans serif is most important for body text and fluid reading.
Governmenting is hard, ain’t it? You get a notion in your mind that you want stuff to look like it did back in some golden age, but then you have the ADA, the GSA, WCAG — all with actual thought put into the matter — arguing against you.
But I can’t get around the idea that it’s unacceptable to make your written communications easier to read. Isn’t that a little perverse? Why go out of your way make things harder?
h/t. to the Font Comparison Tool for the header image.