- From: Anne Pemberton <apembert@crosslink.net>
- Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 14:03:29 -0800
- To: "Bailey, Bruce" <Bruce_Bailey@ed.gov>, <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
At 09:04 AM 11/24/00 -0500, Bailey, Bruce wrote: >It occurs to me that CSS could be very helpful to persons with low literacy >skills. You could, for example, force ALL web sites to use the same base >font (say, 16 point Helvetica, double spaced) and suppress some distracting >effects (e.g., headings and emphasis change ONLY background / foreground >color -- the font size stays fixed [this is the way WordPerfect 4.2 and >earlier worked]). This feature could help certain dyslexic persons with a severe visual perception problem. For two such persons, the ultimate would come from being able to turn the text on a page upside down. I would think that having web pages from different sites >having a more static superficial appearance would also be a helpful thing >from a LD perspective. Just asked my favorite LD person if he would enjoy the web more if he was able to control the font characteristics and background color. After he looked at me as if I'd lost my every-loving mind! he said it sounded "stupid" and "boring" and that the web is for "creativity", not to be stifled. He doesn't want the web reduced to gopher. Now that's from the horse's mouth! Seriously, the best way to do a web page for a person with limited literacy skills is to include illustrations, sounds, multimedia, and as many bells and whistles as may be needed to deliver the information. This week I used two of my web page creations with my young students, and text is a problem. I have a good interface from login to list of links, but then the kids stumbled over the words and had no clue where they were going. Making the letters consistent with the font used in their textbooks didn't help, and I resorted to telling them to click on the words in blue or purple and try them all. Next list I may try just short words, no description, as links (hiding the URL's) without graphics and see how that works, but I'll end up having to add graphics to allow any use of the page to Kindergarteners. There is only so much you can do with text. Anne Anne L. Pemberton http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1 http://www.erols.com/stevepem/Homeschooling apembert@crosslink.net Enabling Support Foundation http://www.enabling.org
Received on Friday, 24 November 2000 14:28:01 UTC