ADA signage is not all about Braille, as covered in ADA Signs – Main Guidelines. The ADA fonts play a large role in the regulations and therefore are important to understand.

A lot of people confuse the ADA signs with Braille Signs. This is not the case. The Braille is part of the regulations that helps the blind, however, there are those who are visually impaired who do not need Braille or raised letters. They can see the signs letters but their sight is not in perfect condition.

Therefore the need for clear fonts arises. The ADA regulations make sure the sign fonts (ADA fonts) are legible and can be read from a distance by more people, even ones with eyesight problems.

Therefore the fonts that are chosen are sans-serif or “simple” serif. “Serif” is the small protruding edge on some of the letters. Fonts that have this edge are called “seriffed fonts” (or typefaces) and those that don’t are called sans serif (from French, sans means without, therefore: without-serif).

Currently, the ADA regulations permit sans-serif fonts and “simple” serif such as Helvetica Medium, Helvetica regular, Avante Garde Demi Condensed, Times Roman, Futura Bold, Futura Regular, Goudy Bold, Optima Regular and Optima Semi Bold.

There is a proposal to change the ADA regulations. There is no known date for that change to take an effect, but usually a proposal like that is accepted. One of the major changes proposed relates to the ADA fonts: only sans-serif fonts will be allowed - Helvetica Regular, Futura Regular or Optima.

Read more about Letters Legibility, ADA Signs Size and ADA Guidelines