The country is in danger of defaulting on its debts(opens in new window) But a second crisis rocked the core of the State Department. It’s a forced font switch from Times New Roman to Calibri.
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Under Secretary of State Anthony Brinken, change is underway at the US State Department. washington post(opens in new window)has changed the font of its internal high-level documentation to be more readable for the visually impaired. This mandate follows the Secretariat’s proposal for Diversity and Inclusion.
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according to postthe move was not well received within the State Department, with employees complaining about the inconvenience of the change and the choice of an unaesthetic font. post That casual discussion of font mandates ended up taking “half a day” between those for and against the change. Another employee was quoted as saying he expected an “internal uprising”. One officer even said the switch was “blasphemy.”
Light-hearted joke or not, the idea that federal employees spend half their working hours in heated discussions about fonts is, to say the least, not inspiring confidence. is not the first time. In fact, Times New Roman was a profane font change dating back to his 2004, when the State Department phased out the use of Courier New 12, a typewriter font.The move received backlash even at the time, according to Gizmodo(opens in new window)Time is a flat, sans-serif “O, to paraphrase the great philosopher(opens in new window).
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A State Department official told The Washington Post that the font mandate is purely for accessibility and has nothing to do with aesthetics. states that the “ornamental and angular features” of Times New Roman and other serifs “may cause accessibility problems for individuals with disabilities who use optical character recognition technology or screen readers.”And there is actually some experimental evidence(opens in new window) Document better readability(opens in new window) This is not definitive, but of a sans-serif font.
talk to an expert post The department’s national and international offices have until February 6th to apply the changes, according to Blinken’s email.
