Accessibility Advice Series: Aligning Your Content to the Left

Did you know it’s easier for those who are blind or low vision to read text when they know where it is at? Similar to how in accordance with driving law, you can expect traffic to be moving forward on the left side of the road.

When creating posts or documents, you can make them more accessible by aligning all the text to the left. When text isn’t left aligned users in our community may have difficulty navigating and tracking along a line of text. For example centred text creates difficulty as it has a ragged left edge and each line starts at a different edge. Whereas left aligned text has a straight left edge and each line starts at the same edge.

Here’s how to left align in Microsoft Word:

1. Open Word.
2. Click on the Home tab.
3. In the Paragraph group, click “Align Left”.

Alternatively, here’s a shortcut to left align in Microsoft Word:

1. Select the text you wish to align.
2. Press Ctrl + L

It’s also a good idea to think about aligning text to the left when you’re creating visual content like posters or adverts.

If you’d like any more information about how to make things more digitally accessible, check out our website – it’s full of advice that you can use to be more inclusive to people who are blind, deafblind or have low vision. Alternatively, give us a call on 0800 24 33 33 to speak to someone about any other accessibility help you require.