I have not been satisfied with the answer I previously gave you, so I have reconsidered the issue of the colored fonts used with the itemized material.
The current Early Learning Materials guidelines allow typeform indicators in first-grade books and state that they should be kept to a minimum. As written, the guidelines leave some room for interpretation.
The fonts used with the itemized material are significant enough to retain. The question then becomes how to retain them. According to Braille Formats, if you choose to retain a font, you should follow print. It is not actually permitted to substitute boldface for color. Because this is a first-grade book, I originally agreed to your using bold because it is simpler for beginning readers. However, that recommendation does not follow print.
THESE ARE THE OPTIONS I SEE:
Option 1. Use one indicator for color (recommended).
Create one transcriber-generated typeform called “color font” and use it for all of the blue and red paragraph headings. This stretches the current guidelines slightly but keeps the formatting simple while preserving the distinction from regular text.
Option 2. Continue using bold instead of color.
This does not strictly follow the guidelines. If you decide this is the best approach, you should do two things:
First, check the entire text to determine whether boldface is used anywhere else besides the paragraph headings.
Second, add a transcriber’s note explaining that bold has been substituted for color.
Although this approach falls outside the intended framework of the guidelines, the transcriber’s note makes the decision more understandable to the reader.
Option 3. Use transcriber-generated typeforms for each color.
This most closely follows the current guidelines. Create separate transcriber-generated typeforms for each color and follow print for all of the paragraph headings.
CONCLUSION
The guidelines provide a framework for making formatting decisions; they are not absolute rules. As a result, you have some professional judgment in determining the best approach. However, transcriptions that closely follow the guidelines promote consistency across publications. That consistency allows students to focus on reading the content rather than adapting to different formatting from one book to another.
