RE: Agenda tweak: 9 Dec 2015

All, 
I addressed the large format printing needs in the early days of our forming.
I’m not sure which document that would be in now.

Basically, large format printing is the biggest gap I see in recommendations for web and mobile for low vision users.

They need printing services from IT devices similar to what can currently only be obtained by specialty printing services.

Here are the recommended guidelines:
http://acb.org/node/750

Guidelines
The following are best practices and guidelines for large print documents. The order in which these items appear does not denote any ranking or relative importance.
• In general, at least an 18 point, and preferably a 20 point, bold, sans serif, mono or fixed space font is desirable. Adobe's Verdana, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial; Linotype's Futura Light Bolded; and Typography's Gotham Rounded fonts currently offer optimal readability for large print documents when the aforementioned parameters are applied.
• Large print documents, with a line spacing (leading) of at least 1.5, provide good readability and help reduce eye strain.
• Titles and headings should be larger than the text of the document and contain both upper and lower case letters. Titles and headings should be aligned left where possible.
• Large print documents that display the text in blocked paragraphs which are aligned left are preferable. Double spacing between paragraphs is necessary for readability.
• Bulleted text should be identified by large solid dark bullets, with double spacing between items.
• Eliminate "widows" and "orphans" when continuing text from one page to the next.
• Page numbers should be the same font style and of at least the same font size as the document text.
• In single-sided, unbound documents, the page number should be positioned in the top right corner. Additionally, it is helpful to have the page number appear at the bottom center. In book formatted documents, the page number should be located in either the upper or lower outer corner of each page. In either case, a margin of at least 0.75 inches is needed to accommodate the page number.
• The paper used in large print documents should have a matte or dull finish to reduce glare. An eggshell color minimizes eye strain.
• Paper used in large print documents should be no less than twenty pound bond to avoid "bleed thru".
• Emphasis is best achieved by the use of asterisks, dashes, double bolding, or by simply underlining an individual word. The use of color or italics is not acceptable for low vision readers.
• Horizontally connect two columns of information with leader dots, as in a table of contents. When a table appears in a large print document, it should be kept on one page. Horizontal and vertical lines between rows and columns will facilitate tracking in tables with multiple columns.
• Binding large print documents that are up to approximately 20 sheets of paper can be saddle stapled. Thicker documents must be bound with an appropriate spiral or wiro binding to facilitate flattening for ease of reading. An ample margin is needed to accommodate the binding.
• The enlargement feature on a copy machine does NOT produce large print documents. Copy machines create fuzzy text, which is often on oversized pages, making the document cumbersome. The use of electronic editing and formatting produces large print documents of superior quality.
• Low vision readers have trouble with graphs, charts, and pictures in documents. An effort should be made to isolate them on individual pages accompanied by explanatory captions.
• Color and hue are not as important as high visual color contrast between a background and a text to those with low vision. The greater the difference between the "light reflectance values" (LRV) of two adjacent surfaces, the greater the contrast. Large print documents produced with a high degree of contrast receive high marks from the low vision community.
• It is generally understood that the characteristics which have the greatest effect on the readability of large print documents can be ranked as follows: spacing, font size, contrast, and font style. Printing houses and publishers should focus on these characteristics when producing documents for the low vision community.
• Depending on eye condition, some low vision readers can read text that is presented in two columns, while others can read text in full width format.
Regards,

Alan

Sent from Mail for Windows 10



From: Shawn Henry
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2015 8:24 PM
To: public-low-vision-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: Agenda tweak: 9 Dec 2015


A tweak to:
> Agenda+ sectional summaries vs introductions
> https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-low-vision-a11y-tf/2015Dec/0001.html

Agenda+ user needs section intros: descriptions or summaries, or both?
https://github.com/w3c/low-vision-a11y-tf/issues/2