Current ADA guidelines call for “simple” serifs. What is a simple serif?
There is no such term in typography. Originally, a research group under contract to the Access Board recommended that visual signs use “sans serif or simple serif type faces without excessive flourishes or deviations in stroke width.” In other words, visual signs should not use decorative or script type faces, but could use serif type faces of “simple” design. They recommended that tactile signs use upper case sans serif characters. Unfortunately, when ADAAG was written, whether through an attempt to simplify the guidelines, or through failure to notice the difference between the two recommendations, the term “simple serif,” with no further detail, was used for both visual and tactile signs. The proposed rules eliminate this confusing term completely, although they do allow non-decorative serif type faces for visual signs. Designers who want to use “best practices” should not specify serif faces, even if they consider them “simple,” for tactile signs, since serifs make tactile characte
