- From: Leonard R. Kasday <kasday@acm.org>
- Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 20:58:46 -0500
- To: w3c-wai-er-ig@w3.org
Here's my current thoughts on learning disabilities (LD) and web design. This is a mixture of what we've discussed on the list following the issues brought up by Jonathan Chetwynd, plus some thoughts following other things I've learned about LD. I'm still no expert in LD by any means so please take these as proposals, not anything final. Len ------------------------------ There appears to be several problems on web pages that affect people with learning disabilities (LD). 1. Some people with LD do not read. 2. Visual clutter can be a problem for some people with LD. Visual clutter includes + ALT text that pops up as tooltips when the mouse passes over an image, as brought up by Jonathan (e.g. he described ALT text as "distracting, confusing, and demoralising" for people with LD). + flashing and flickering icons + Dense, complex layouts in general + Large amounts of text. This presumably is clutter for people who do not read. Also, even if the person has text-to-speech software, there may be difficulties dealing with large amounts of speech, especially the speech from current synthesizers. 3. Renditions in colors different than the object usually has can be a problem. Perhaps this is a special case of a more general problem of unfamiliar renditions. The above problems suggest the following approaches. 1. Means should be provided to stop the tooltip-style tags that popup with ALT text, e.g. + Provisions in the Browser to turn off popup ALT tags (or titles if those are what pop up). + External Repair tools that strip the ALT text (the Web Access Gateway already has this). 2. Use word count on a page to predict usability by people with dyslexia. Keep number of words less than 30 for a "text free site". 1. It would be useful for search engines to include word counts. 2. If page is a frameset, word count should include all frames. 3. Use colors appropriate to object (and nationality) e.g. right color for busses to reduce confusion. 4. Possibly include measures of reading complexity in evaluation tools. + How to handle words not in dictionary? Assume "hard"? Or accept if defined? 5. Important to help reader get 1. get the "big picture" of the site, 2. Quickly understand how to navigate within the site, 3. Quickly find particular information the user is looking for. 6. Include logical structure not just physical (already in guidelines). This is needed for accommodations in the following item: 7. Possible accommodations are as follows. Note: at this point the benefits of these are mostly speculative. 1. Notating text blocks with symbolic icons. A stylesheet could specify what icons are associated with different HTML tags and with classes e.g. within tags or within <SPAN>. 2. Replacing the text blocks with those icons, and providing means for the user to hear the original text read when e.g. clicking on the icons. 3. Marking standard links (e.g. HOME, CONTACT US, SEARCH) with standardized icons. These links could be identified heuristically via tools, manually by page author, or semiautomatically by authoring tool. Also, provide means for blind users--or any users for that matter to quickly select those standard links. 4. Designing image maps so that clickable areas are clearly defined in the first place. 5. Adding markings to image maps to show clickable areas. 6. Provide means to shut off blinking and distracting animations (this is already in the guidelines). 7. Typically, a page consists of "gestalts" like a main image map, navigation bar, footer, etc. Provide means to separate those with white space and allow viewing sequentially, e.g. by scrolling or paging. 8. Regarding the screenreaders used by sighted people who do not read 1. Allow screenreader to access ALT text when images are on. This is best accomplished by interface standard to screenreader. In the meantime, repair tools that present text next to image will help (as in Web Access Gateway). ------- Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D. Universal Design Engineer, Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering Temple University Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122 kasday@acm.org (215} 204-2247 (voice) (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
Received on Sunday, 14 March 1999 20:57:38 UTC