RE: Addition to Reflow Understanding

I hear you Wayne.  I use 800x600 resolution on my system because I can’t stand using magnification software.  Not only is two dimensional scrolling inefficient but it makes me dizzy.  I’ve also read thousands of pages on CCTVs as well.  I can’t say if the group was or wasn’t aware of the issue but I will say that sometimes there are powers that object to criteria that are well documented.  And in order to achieve consensus the group has to make a decision and plan on how to move forward.

The good news is that mobile devices and responsive design have made others aware of the issue that a small group of us were aware of previously.  We now have modern operating systems that still work on lower resolution and some have text scaling capabilities such as Windows.  We still have work to be done and I did speak up on previous WCAG calls to say in the document that we have not addressed all of the needs of people with low vision.

I agree a note would be helpful.

Jonathan Avila

From: Wayne Dick <wayneedick@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2018 6:19 PM
To: public-low-vision-a11y-tf <public-low-vision-a11y-tf@w3.org>
Subject: Addition to Reflow Understanding


Hi Everyone,

I would like to add the quote below as the second paragraph of the Intent section in the understanding document.

I do not think reflow would have been left out if its importance had been known to the WCAG 2.0 WG. So, I think it should be stated very explicitly. I would like if we did our best to prevent this from happening again. So, could we make our intent very clear.

" For people with low vision, enlarged text with reflow, serves the same function that braille serves for non-visual readers. While both groups benefit from audio reading formats, they both need a self-paced reading medium for understanding difficult content. Enlargement enables perception of characters. Reflow makes reading a tractable operation."

I am one of the few people who has read difficult 1000 page books without reflow. Please take my word. It is really difficult. The importance of reflow cannot be underestimated.

Kind Regards, Wayne