Re: Partially sighted Web user

Other will follow up on this I'm sure, but one thing she might try is
to set a fixed width font and make sure that all user over rides are
turned on in the browser much the same way as for screen readers.  In
addition, if she is using ie 4.01 through 5, she has a system carot
that should help.
Julie Howell wrote:
> 
> I have been contacted by a partially sighted lady here in the UK  who is using a
> particular Acorn Archimedes screen magnification system.
> 
> She is experiencing problems when trying to view some Websites.  She is
> under the impression that Web designers are able to code Webpages so that
> horizonal scrolling will never be necessary by users of magnification software.
> Here's what she says in a messasge to me:
> 
> " Formatting.   I'm still concerned that this issue doesn't seem to be amongst
> the ones you raise with designers.   Yet it's quite crucial for
> anyone using screen enlargement,  like me.
> I need to be able to format all text to about 50-character lines,  and a resolution
> width of 440 pixels.   Do you take this into account when advising clients?
> Some sites reformat automatically,  giving me line
> lengths that fit my screen.   Others have a fixed
> line length,  which makes me have to scroll across,
>  which is very bad for my eyes :-(
> Can you add automatic reformatting to your
> desired parameters,  please?"
> 
> My response to this lady so far has been that I didn't believe it was possible to
> fix the width of pages without the use of tables (which then causes problems for
> other Net users).
> 
> Doesn't all magnification software (such as Zoomtext) require horizontal
> scrolling?  Is is realistic to expect all Web designers to put text with fixed-width
> tables/frames (I think not!).
> Am I missing something?  Or should I advise this lady that there is nothing that
> can be done to help her and she should get some new software (which she is
> very reluctant to do)?
> 
> Thanks and best wishes
> Julie Howell
> Campaigns Officer (Access to Digital)
> RNIB
> JHowell@rnib.org.uk

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Received on Friday, 1 October 1999 09:52:59 UTC