About a month ago, while catching up with the accessibility professionals I follow on LinkedIn, I came across a post by one of my favorite trainers and advocates, Dax Castro. The post was in response to feedback he had received from a previous post.
The original conversation centered around two common design elements used to indicate emphasis. Quotation marks and underlines. Some screen readers will announce quote marks around words or phrases. For example, left quote Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death right quote. This is not only annoying but also interrupts reading flow and diminishes the user experience. While the use of underlines, other than when used with a hyperlink, can be confusing - is it a link or isn’t it? In addition, the use of underlining can obscure descenders in certain letters, which can adversely affect readability.
So, what alternatives are there to quotation marks and underlines? Dax Castro suggests using bold and italics for emphasis. For my sighted readers, you’ll see I used bold for the phrase in the paragraph above. In fact, I have incorporated the use of bold in several previous blog posts. I use bold in place of quotation marks, and use italics very rarely, as I follow AP Style. And as such, not using quotation marks goes against AP Style. Accessibility wins! 🥳
As for the use of underlining, I cringe whenever I come across a body of text where underlining is used for emphasis AND hyperlinks. Talk about making me think! When I was in higher ed working with the web team, we had a hard rule about not using underlining unless it was a hyperlink.
Another thoughtful way to emphasize your words without using quotation marks or underlining is to choose your words strategically.
For example, if the registration deadline is two days away, consider a header that reads Critical Deadline Approaching - Register Now! If input to a form field must be formatted a certain way, label the field Important: Format as HH:MM:SS
At the end of the day, accessibility isn’t just about checking off boxes on a list—it’s about people. Real success comes when your content connects, communicates, and works seamlessly for everyone.
Resources
- Dax Castro on LinkedIn
- Australian Gvt Style Manual
- Emphasizing Text for Accessibility: Bold, Italics, and Strong
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