Web Accessibility Training

Emphasising text: incorrect methods

Advisory

The information on this page is only applicable if you're editing the University webpages using T4. It presumes that you have already completed the beginners and advanced level of the T4 training (a link for staff only - opens in new window).

Italicised text

Italicised text is, technically, emphasis with less importance than bold text, and assistive technologies will communicate it as such. You may therefore find that some other websites recommend its use for this purpose.

However, we follow the example of many other mainstream websites in not using italicised text for general emphasis, because it can be difficult for those with dyslexia and other visual challenges to read. This follows public advice from the British Dyslexia Association.

Underlined text

You shouldn't use underlining to emphasise the text of your webpage.

Underlining indicates that text is a link, so unlinked text that is underlined can:

  • cause confusion
  • make actual links less obvious (they don't stand out)
  • give the impression that the text is a broken link, because nothing happens when the reader clicks on it.

Underlining is only used for links, and when you create a link it will automatically be given an underline. This is why the T4 editing window has no underlining formatting button.

Why some books, documents and other websites use underlining for headings and emphasis

Underlining has long been the convention for headings and emphasis when hand-writing (hence the expression 'to underline a point'), and in the 19th and 20th centuries this continued with the widespread use of the typewriter, which couldn't easily produce italics or bold but could underline.

So you may find many older hard-copy documents and texts (especially minutes of meetings) with underlined words, and in some areas (including old or personal websites) this very long-standing convention remains. However, this kind of underlining shouldn't be replicated online now; the use of links has completely changed the use of underlining for online text.

Block capitals

'Block capitals' is the expression used to describe when entire words are written in uppercase, LIKE THIS. This is another convention inherited from handwritten and typewritten texts, but now you should never use block capitals for emphasis online, because:

  • culturally, it's now often considered to be the text equivalent of shouting.
  • it can be hard for people with dyslexia and other visual challenges to read.
  • it doesn't emphasise the text in the code, so assistive technologies that read text audibly will not read it any differently from the surrounding text.

Block capitals are sometimes used for the top level heading that shows the name of your website, but when webbing your page content you should only use block capitals for acronymns (e.g. NASA).

Text in highlighted boxes

Placing text within a highlighted box will visually emphasise it, but not technically – i.e. it's not emphasised as far as accessibility is concerned, and assistive technologies won't indicate that it's any different from the surrounding text in terms of its presentation or importance.

Highlighted boxes can be used to break up text, improving the flow and visual readability of your page. If you need to draw particular attention to that text, however, you should also use a heading and/or bold text, as appropriate for the purpose.

Coloured text

If you're familiar with working in web code, you may know how to add a tag to change the colour of your text. You shouldn't change the colour of text, because:

  • The pages are styled according to our brand, and this includes the colours.
  • Changing the colour of text can introduce accessibility errors relating to the text's contrast.

Marked text

If you're familiar with working in web code, you may be aware of the 'mark' tag, which can highlight text like this. Marked text is, again, a purely visual feature – it does not technically emphasise content, and assistive technologies will not communicate it as being any different from surrounding text, so for now you should not use this tag.