RE: Low Vision Needs

Wayne,

Ø  I hope the larger than normal font does not disrupt your reading.

It’s actually ironic that you mention this.  Larger text like that found in your document actually is much slower for me to read – at least with my low resolution display.  I would prefer to view the text closer but have the text at a smaller font for optimal reading efficiency.  You also discuss spacing between letters – for me – I tend to use whole word recognition and thus spacing between words – and even worse uneven spacing causes a decrease in reading speed.  Larger line spacing is also problematic for me – I don’t have an issue with line tracking and so extra white can also cause a decrease in efficiency.  I use a low resolution display mode and thus sites that are designed for high resolution display tent to have a lot of extra white space that I would prefer to have condensed.

What this says to me is that we really need flexibility as you indicate for the user’s preferences to be honored.  At the same time I don’t want to have to apply a custom style sheet nor do I expect that most users will know how to apply one – so in addition we need some practical guidelines that will assist users with some sufficient level of support without requiring customization – but still allow for complete customization.  The link to the WebAIM survey is a good resource.  I think it’s also important for us to put together some commonalities that many but not all people with low vision might have, for example:


·        Decreased contrast sensitivity

·        Increased glare sensitivity

·        Reduced field --- either by looking closely or by visual impairment field of vision

·        Need for magnification

·        Trouble locating or tracking mouse cursor

·        Etc.

Because low vision is such a wide group of individuals we are likely to have needs to conflict.  Creating personas and perhaps sending out a survey might also assist.

Best Regards,

Jonathan

--
Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com<mailto:jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com>

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From: Wayne Dick [mailto:wayneedick@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 5:00 PM
To: GLWAI Guidelines WG org; Jeanne Spellman; Shawn Henry; Sharron Rush; Jim Allan; jbrewer@w3.org; tom
Subject: Low Vision Needs

Hi All,
I have been working on a Low Vision needs document.

http://nosetothepage.org/LVOverview/LV_Needs.html. I hope the larger than normal font does not disrupt your reading.
Wayne.