RE: Rivers of white(3.4.4)

Jim, interesting article – although I disagree a little with the solution.   Two parts of the solution to get rid of rivers of white and keep full justification include the addition of hyphenation and to change the font and/or font spacing.  Hyphenation can be problematic for some readers and word, letter spacing and specific font faces can be problematic as well.  The better solution is likely to not use full justification.  I found the font spacing changes in their solution image to be harder to read for me as think some of the words or letters were more compressed personally than the font in the rivers of white example – although I appreciate the removal of the rivers of white.

Jonathan

From: Jim Allan [mailto:jimallan@tsbvi.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 12:08 PM
To: public-low-vision-a11y-tf
Subject: Rivers of white(3.4.4)

A good article, defines user need for dyslexia, screen magnifiers: http://www.pws-ltd.com/sections/articles/2009/justified_text.html

With simple justified text (as seen in the right-hand column above) the uneven variation in spacing between words makes the text more difficult to read because, instead of moving smoothly along the line, the eye has to jump from word to word. For people with certain disabilities such as dyslexia the problems can be serious; justification can interfere with their ability to understand the text at all
short concise definition and builds in user issue. We could write something new, or site this. Would change 'negative space' to "negative (white) space"
http://opusdesign.us/graphic-design-tip-removing-rivers-and-working-with-justified-text/

Rivers: Gaps of uneven negative space between words in a paragraph. If there are many of these gaps in the paragraph, it looks like a “river” of negative space flowing through and it makes text hard to read.

--
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315    fax: 512.206.9264  http://www.tsbvi.edu/

"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964