Design System Accessibility: Typography & Size

If you can’t see it, you can’t use it.

Presbyopia¹ is a physiological condition which makes it harder to focus on close objects. This is a side-effect of your eyes ageing and currently effects about a quarter of the worlds population¹.

According to some sources everyones eyesight worsens after the age of 4⁰². This is why it is important for us to design experiences that are accessible for people with farsightedness³. They are a huge part of nearly everybody’s audience.

There are three main aspects to designing for farsightedness. Readability, allowing users to zoom and the size of interactive elements.

Readability & typography

Font size

There is no official minimum size for text⁴. This is probably at least in part due to typefaces having a different size appearance depending on their design.

However it is generally agreed that 16px or more is a good size for body copy⁵.

It is also recommended to never use any font-size smaller than 12px⁶ as your text may be illegible.

Desktop vs. mobile

When choosing a font size, the viewing distance is much more important the viewport size⁷. A mobile phone is normally held at arms length. This creates a viewing distance similar to a desktop screens. As a result, even though the screen is much smaller, your…