{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T21:05:09Z","timestamp":1774386309517,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1774310400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Circle K Procurment and Brands Ltd"},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000009","name":"Foundation for the National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["EY030890"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EY030890"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000009","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000009","name":"Foundation for the National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01EY036360"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01EY036360"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000009","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The visual accessibility of fonts refers to the range of print sizes and efficiency with which readers can access text. One goal of font design may be to maximize accessibility for a wide range of users including those with low vision. Here, we compare behavioral and automated methods for evaluating the accessibility of a font for both normal and simulated low vision.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Method<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We evaluated the accessibility of a newly designed font, ACT Easy. In Experiment 1, we used a behavioral (psychophysical) approach to compare regular and bold versions of ACT Easy to Courier, Frutiger, and Gotham. 22 normally sighted young adults were tested with a computerized version of MNREAD in two conditions: normal viewing, and text digitally filtered to simulate moderate low vision (20\/90 acuity). The outcome measures were reading acuity, critical print size, maximum reading speed, and participants\u2019 preference rankings. In Experiment 2, we used an automated method to estimate the equivalent of reading acuity for eleven state-of-the-art Optical Character Recognition models. The models read MNREAD sentences in ACT Easy and five mainstream fonts. We explored how accurately the models mimicked human performance.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In Experiment 1, ACT Easy Regular compared well in reading acuity and critical print size with Courier, the best of the other fonts for both normal and simulated low-vision conditions. ACT Easy Regular and Gotham were favored in the preference rankings. In Experiment 2, nine of the eleven OCR models showed changes in reading acuity similar to humans in the normal and simulated low-vision conditions. Two of the models also exhibited human-like variations across fonts.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Behavioral and automated methods are both capable of revealing subtle differences in the visual accessibility of fonts. The behavioral method requires labor-intensive human testing. The automated method does not require human testing, and may sometimes provide a practical alternative.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0345068","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T17:36:38Z","timestamp":1774373798000},"page":"e0345068","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Assessment of newly designed fonts for visual accessibility"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3742-1680","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Gordon E.","family":"Legge","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yingzi","family":"Xiong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qingying","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rachel","family":"Gage","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-3716-9914","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Taylor","family":"Knickel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Charles","family":"Bigelow","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]]},"reference":[{"issue":"7","key":"pone.0345068.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"717","DOI":"10.1001\/jamaophthalmol.2021.0527","article-title":"Prevalence of visual acuity loss or blindness in the US: a bayesian meta-analysis","volume":"139","author":"AD Flaxman","year":"2021","journal-title":"JAMA Ophthalmol"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0345068.ref002","article-title":"Trends in prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment over 30 years: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study","volume":"9","author":"GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators, Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study","year":"2021","journal-title":"Lancet Glob Health"},{"key":"pone.0345068.ref003","volume-title":"Legibility of print","author":"MA Tinker","year":"1963"},{"key":"pone.0345068.ref004","volume-title":"Psychophysics of reading in normal and low vision","author":"GE Legge","year":"2007"},{"key":"pone.0345068.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"162","DOI":"10.1016\/j.visres.2019.05.003","article-title":"Typeface features and legibility research","volume":"165","author":"C Bigelow","year":"2019","journal-title":"Vision Res"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0345068.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1097\/00006324-199301000-00010","article-title":"Visual requirements for reading","volume":"70","author":"SG Whittaker","year":"1993","journal-title":"Optom Vis Sci"},{"key":"pone.0345068.ref007","volume-title":"Reading rate: a review of research and theory","author":"RP Carver","year":"1990"},{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0345068.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3502222","article-title":"Towards individuated reading experiences: different fonts increase reading speed for different individuals","volume":"29","author":"S Wallace","year":"2022","journal-title":"ACM Trans Comput-Hum Interact"},{"key":"pone.0345068.ref009","unstructured":"Font T. MyFonts by Monotype Internet. 2001. 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