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Making everyday documents easier to read

Last updated 2 October 2026

This guide is for anyone who writes everyday documents, such as event details, letters home or how-to steps, and wants them to work for dyslexic readers. It’s also for dyslexic readers who want documents they can adapt for themselves. It goes with our free dyslexia resources: two Word templates, each with a filled-in example.

The short version: say the important thing first, break the text into labeled sections, leave space, and keep it as real text that people can resize, re-space and listen to. No single format works for every dyslexic reader, so the most useful thing a document can be is easy to change. Then ask your readers what works for them.

This is about access to everyday information. It isn’t about diagnosing dyslexia, treating it or teaching reading. Dyslexia mainly affects reading and spelling, and it affects everyone differently. It isn’t a measure of intelligence, and the advice here is the same whether your readers are adults or children.

One more thing to know: a document can meet the accessibility standard WCAG and still be hard to read. WCAG makes sure a document works with screen readers, zoom and other tools, but most of it doesn’t judge how easy the text is to follow. The W3C publishes separate guidance for that, which much of this guide draws on.

Put the most important thing first

  • Say what the document is for in its title and first sentence: “Fall planting day at the community garden”, not “Newsletter item”.
  • If the reader has to do something, say what and by when, near the top. A deadline in the last paragraph is easy to miss.

Use headings and short sections

  • Write headings that say what’s below them, such as “When and where” or “What to bring”. Use Word’s or Google Docs’ heading styles rather than bold text, so readers can jump between sections with the navigation pane, a screen reader or a read-aloud tool.
  • Keep to one topic per section, and keep paragraphs short.
  • For instructions, give each action its own numbered step, starting with a verb: “Choose a date.” Put a note after the step it’s about, not in the middle of it.
  • Label key facts with a word, such as “Deadline:” or “When:”. A color, an icon or a box on its own is easy to miss and can’t be read aloud.

Leave room on the page

  • Align text to the left. Justified text, lined up on both sides, stretches the gaps between words unevenly, which makes lines harder to follow for some readers.
  • Leave space between lines and between paragraphs, and keep lines to about 80 characters or fewer.
  • Use one column. Don’t put text over pictures or patterns, and don’t try to fill every corner of the page.
  • To make a word stand out, use bold, and use it sparingly. The British Dyslexia Association advises against underlining and italics, which can make text look crowded, and against capital letters for continuous text.

Make the text easy to change

Set the font, size and spacing in the document’s styles (Normal, Heading 1 and so on), not by formatting text by hand. Then anyone, including the reader, can change the whole document in one place without breaking its structure.

A common sans serif font, such as Calibri, Arial or Verdana, at 12 to 14 point is a reasonable start. Our free templates use Calibri at 14 point with 1.5 line spacing. Those are starting points, not rules. Some readers want larger text, more space or a different font, and the point of sharing an editable file is that they can have it.

Special fonts are a choice, not a fix

Fonts such as Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic were designed for dyslexic readers. Two controlled studies have tested them, both with children:

  • In the Netherlands, 170 children with dyslexia read texts no faster and no more accurately in Dyslexie than in Arial. In a second experiment, 102 children with dyslexia and 45 without read word lists in Dyslexie, Arial and Times New Roman: again, Dyslexie made no difference, and most children preferred Arial or Times New Roman (Kuster and others, 2018).
  • In the United States, 12 students with dyslexia in grades 3 to 6 read letters, words and made-up words in OpenDyslexic, Arial and Times New Roman. OpenDyslexic didn’t improve their reading speed or accuracy, and none of them said they preferred it (Wery and Diliberto, 2017).

These studies have limits. They tested children, not adults, over short reading tasks, and the second was small. Still, they give no reason to switch every document to a special font, or to promise readers it will help. If a reader prefers one, that’s a reasonable choice for them, and if your text is set in styles, they can switch in seconds.

Background color is a preference too

The British Dyslexia Association’s style guide suggests dark text on a cream or soft pastel background rather than white, which can look too bright, and also says some dyslexic people have their own color preference. We don’t know of a background color that helps every dyslexic reader, so our templates come on white, the color most printers and screens expect, and our customizing instructions show how to change it. Whatever you choose, keep the contrast between text and background strong, and check it with WebAIM’s free contrast checker.

Write plainly, and keep the detail

  • Plain language doesn’t mean leaving things out. Keep every fact the reader needs: dates, times, amounts, exceptions.
  • Use everyday words and short sentences, and say who does what: “Send the form by Friday”, not “Forms must be submitted prior to the deadline.”
  • Avoid double negatives, and explain or avoid abbreviations and jargon.
  • Write to adults as adults. Simple isn’t childish: no cartoons, no “Don’t worry!”, no talking down.

Keep text as text

  • Type information; don’t put it in a picture. Text in an image can’t be resized, re-spaced, read aloud or searched.
  • Share the Word or Google Docs file, or a tagged PDF made from it. Never a scan or a photo of a printout.
  • Read-aloud tools need real text. Word for Windows and Mac has Read Aloud (Review tab). Word, including Word for the web, has Immersive Reader (View tab), which reads aloud and can also change spacing and page color for the reader without changing the file. Phones and computers have their own, such as Spoken Content on iPhone and Mac and Select to Speak on Android.
  • Listen to your document once with one of these before you send it. Missing words, confusing order and unexplained abbreviations stand out.

Ask what works

  • Say how to get the document in another format, with a name to contact. Our activity information sheet has a line for this.
  • When someone tells you what helps them, such as larger print or a particular color of paper, keep a version for them, but don’t assume the next reader wants the same.
  • Don’t ask anyone to disclose a diagnosis to get a format that suits them.

Before and after

Here is a made-up notice from a library, first as it might arrive, then rewritten. Every fact is still there.

Before

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS

Please be advised that, due to ongoing renovation work in the main hall, which is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, the Thursday evening adult reading group will, effective November 5, no longer meet in the main hall and will instead be held in Meeting Room 2 on the second floor, which can be reached by the elevator beside the front desk, and members who wish to continue attending are asked to confirm their place by email to reading@alderbend.example no later than October 30, as the new room holds a maximum of 12 people.

After

The reading group is moving rooms

From Thursday, November 5, the adult reading group meets in Meeting Room 2, on the second floor.

What you need to do

Deadline: Email reading@alderbend.example by Friday, October 30 to keep your place. The new room holds 12 people.

Getting there

Take the elevator beside the front desk to the second floor.

Why

The main hall is being renovated. We don’t know yet when it will reopen.

A notice rewritten for easier reading. In a Word document, the bold lines in the After version would be real headings.

What changed:

  • The title says what’s happening, instead of announcing that something is important.
  • The change comes first, and the reason last: readers need the new room before they need the renovation news.
  • The action and its deadline have their own section and a “Deadline:” label. The deadline also gained its weekday.
  • One long sentence became several short ones, one idea each.
  • The text is left-aligned instead of justified, with no italics, underlining or capital letters.
  • Nothing was dropped: date, room, floor, elevator, email address, deadline, room size, reason, and the honest “we don’t know yet” are all still there.

A short checklist

  • The title and first sentence say what this is.
  • What the reader has to do, and by when, is near the top.
  • Headings use heading styles and say what’s below them.
  • Steps are numbered, one action each.
  • Text is left-aligned, with space between lines and paragraphs.
  • Font, size and spacing are set in styles, so a reader can change them.
  • No information is only in a picture, a color or an icon.
  • Plain words and short sentences, with nothing important left out.
  • It makes sense when you listen to it with a read-aloud tool.
  • It says how to ask for another format.

How sure are we?

Common practice. Putting the purpose first, clear headings, separate steps, white space, left-aligned text and plain language are recommended in the W3C’s guidance on making content usable for people with cognitive and learning disabilities, in WCAG’s visual presentation criterion, and in the British Dyslexia Association’s style guide. They help many readers, dyslexic or not.

Personal preference. Font, text size, spacing and background color vary from reader to reader. That’s why the advice is to make them easy to change, not to pick one for everyone.

Tested in studies. Specialist dyslexia fonts were tested in the two studies above and made no difference to reading speed or accuracy for the children tested.

If something here doesn’t work for you, we’d like to know: our support page says how to reach us.

Free templates

Our free dyslexia resources include an activity information sheet and a step-by-step instructions sheet, each as a blank Word template and a filled-in example, with instructions for changing the font, size, spacing and background.

Sources

All links checked 2 October 2026.

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