BATON ROUGE, LA – The East Baton Rouge Parish Library has rolled out a new inclusivity policy requiring staff to address all patrons using their self-identified font and type size preferences. According to an internal document sent to The Sadvocate, this is part of the library’s broader “Typographical Sensitivity Initiative,” launched after a patron claimed they were mis-fonted during a reference desk encounter.
“We had a Helvetica-presenting teen referred to in Arial,” one administrator explained. “That’s not just disrespectful, it’s typographical violence.”
All staff name tags now include personal font identities (“Judy – 12pt Garamond Italic”) and employees must undergo quarterly sensitivity training on distinguishing between serif and sans-serif users.
The library has also designated a “Safe Script Zone” where Comic Sans patrons can browse without fear of judgment. A staff member was recently reprimanded for referring to a bold-facing patron as “all caps,” which was deemed an act of microshouting.
“Misfonting is the new misgendering,” the spokesperson said, “and we take both very seriously, especially when it’s in bold,” a spokesman told us.
