[Taxacom] How important is italicisation, when writing taxon names on web pages?

[Andy Mabbett]

I was always taught to write species, subspecies, and genus names in
italics, in print and online.

Some time ago, I persuaded the Guardian newspaper to update their
style guide to include this [1] - something that they mostly, but not
always [2], do now.

I recently asked the UK government to update their online style guide
similarly, and they refused, saying:


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"A lot of the GOV.UK style guide decisions are based on:

     * accessibility
     * evidence and user research into how people read online

"For example, some evidence suggests that people with dyslexia find
italics difficult to read as it can make the text appear to run
together and cause crowding. It's important that GOV.UK content is
accessible to everyone, so you shouldn't see italics used across
GOV.UK.

"However, our style guide isn't set in stone - with enough relevant
evidence and user-research we can take suggestions for updates to our
style team here. If you feel that you might be able to provide some
evidence to support a change, let us know and we can run it past our
team here."

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How important an issue do you think such italicisation is?

Is it more important on pages about taxonomy than, say, news reporting
aimed at the general public?

My understanding on accessibility is that italicised paragraphs or
long sentences should be avoided, but single words (for emphasis) or
species names, are OK. Can anyone give sources to support this? LInks
to prior discussion would also be welcome.


[1] https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-s

[2] e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/28/human-species-homo-bodoensis-who-lived-500000-years-ago-is-named

-- 
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk