RE: ACTION-18: Look at mwbp re: text resize (Mobile Accessibility Task Force)

Interesting. 

Using the same app (Chrome 36 for Android), I find that with the text size set large the pages seem to load optimized to the width of the screen without the need to scroll horizontally (i.e. if it's a single column page, the text will be quite large vs. if it's a multicolumn page, the text will be smaller). In both cases, a double-tap seems to apply further enlargement but without maintaining horizontal reflow.

Cheers,
Jan




________________________________________
From: Jonathan Avila [jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com]
Sent: July-28-14 2:03 PM
To: Richards, Jan; public-mobile-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: RE: ACTION-18: Look at mwbp re: text resize (Mobile Accessibility   Task Force)

[Jan wrote]
 3. Browser default text size adjustment:
- All three browser let the user set the default text size.

In Chrome 36 on my Android Nexus 7 there is a text size adjustment under Settings > Accessibility.  It indicates that the text should be at least this size when the paragraph is double tapped.

So, this message would indicate that text resize is only available when you double tap items and doesn't resize the page content without user interaction.  In my brief tests I found that some pages would resize without double tapping and that double tapping produced no results.  Other pages didn't resize at all.

>From what I can gather:
* The instructions are misleading -- perhaps have even changed since this setting was created.
* The resize feature seems to resize text only or has limitations based on fixed units for container or perhaps fonts.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Richards, Jan [mailto:jrichards@ocadu.ca]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 12:53 PM
To: Jonathan Avila; public-mobile-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: RE: ACTION-18: Look at mwbp re: text resize (Mobile Accessibility Task Force)

Hi Jon,

Agreed. And you're right that I've never seen a way to control the display of a hybrid app other than the controls surfaced by the app itself (e.g. in BBC News app for Android...open an article and then press Menu key and Increase/Decrease font will be available - though the setting won't be used on the main page).

Back to text size for a minute: Everyone probably knows this, but it may be worth saying...there are several types of zoom:

1. OS (or platform) level
- All web pages (within their containing browser viewports) will be zoomable by OS-level zoom features, even if they try to block zoom.
- But this "dumb" zoom requires panning left-right as well as up-down.

2. Browser zoom (e.g. pinch zoom):
- "dumb" zoom requires panning left-right as well as up-down.
- As the BBC guidelines (http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/futuremedia/accessibility/mobile/design/zoom) state, it is possible for content to block zooming (here's a zoom blocking demo: http://davidwalsh.name/demo/mobile-viewport.php)
- I tested this in the Android stock browser, Chrome and Firefox for Android and it blocked zoom in all.
- INTERESTINGLY, the Android stock browser and Chrome have an "Accessibility>Force zoom" option...this worked in Chrome but it did NOT work for the stock browser.

3. Browser default text size adjustment:
- This is the best way to enable zoom because it allows reflow so the user only has to pan up-down, not left-right (though this works better for content that uses width for structure (e.g. tables, etc.)
- All three browser let the user set the default text size.

4. OS default text size adjustment:
- Same as (3) except at the OS level so the same size would be used for all apps
- I haven't really tested the support for this (except for the Android stock browser which does not support this).

Cheers,
Jan

(MR) JAN RICHARDS
PROJECT MANAGER
INCLUSIVE DESIGN RESEARCH CENTRE (IDRC)
OCAD UNIVERSITY

T 416 977 6000 x3957
F 416 977 9844
E jrichards@ocadu.ca

________________________________________
From: Jonathan Avila [jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com]
Sent: July-25-14 1:45 PM
To: Richards, Jan; public-mobile-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: RE: ACTION-18: Look at mwbp re: text resize (Mobile Accessibility   Task Force)

Keep in mind that there are at least two default browsers on the Android (depending on the version of the OS) - the Android browser and Chrome.  These have different accessibility options and support.  For screen reader users Firefox is considered the most accessible Android browser.   While users can choose different browsers to use -- hybrid apps use the default browser for the particular OS version AFAIK. And the user has no option to change it.  I'm not aware that accessibility settings come through in the hybrid apps -- this might be a good thing to check out to find out if they do.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Richards, Jan [mailto:jrichards@ocadu.ca]
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 11:36 AM
To: public-mobile-a11y-tf@w3.org
Subject: RE: ACTION-18: Look at mwbp re: text resize (Mobile Accessibility Task Force)

Hi all,

I was wrong about something I said on the call...

The screenshot in this message isn't from the Android browser (as I said), it is from the Android "font size" setting (available from settings>My Device>Display>Font size

I did some quick testing and this platform font-size setting does not seem to be respected by the browser. Instead, the browser has its own text scaling setting. A screenshot is here:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fZhUez5a1pU/T5qpZWNXbxI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/GAF7lWe9tho/s640/Screenshot_2012-04-26-22-04-05.jpg

Cheers,
Jan

(MR) JAN RICHARDS
PROJECT MANAGER
INCLUSIVE DESIGN RESEARCH CENTRE (IDRC)
OCAD UNIVERSITY

T 416 977 6000 x3957
F 416 977 9844
E jrichards@ocadu.ca

Received on Monday, 28 July 2014 18:14:34 UTC