At 9:00 a.m., the poster hall opens. One visitor finds a poster whose body text disappears from two metres away. Another reaches a chart that separates its data only by red and green. A third scans the QR code and lands on an image-only PDF that a screen reader cannot interpret. The conference has covered size and mounting, but it has not issued accessible scientific poster guidelines or explained what organizers will check.
Accessible scientific poster guidelines should cover the real viewing distance, readable text, clear contrast, non-colour cues, a logical reading order, labelled figures and an accessible version containing the poster’s essential content. Organizers should publish those requirements before presenters begin designing, test the digital access route and review files early enough to request corrections before printing.