Coping with Accessibility Non-Support of Zoom

Zoom technology, enlargement without word wrapping, has not been
accessibility support since word wrapping became a staple of user interface
technology back in the 1980s. Zoom is not accessibility support because it
is not reading support. I always loathed having to read that way, but until
I counted operations I never really appreciated just how much operational
overhead people with low vision endure just to read.

If there is just one midline truncation caused by enlargement the number of
scrolls goes up to 40+ times the scrolls needed by a reader of standard
text with word wrapping. If the line is truncated in two places the number
of scrolls goes to 90+ times normal. That is not support.

Zoom was great when we had to enlarge print in paper books to read. You
must use zoom to read print on paper. When there is an option for word
wrapping, zoom is a barrier.

Does it work with menus? No. It might work if you only encountered one menu
per day.

Does it work with navigation panes? No. People with low vision navigate
too.

Whether it is two words or blocks of text, it does not matter. Breaking
lines without word wrapping is a barrier to reading and operation of
websites.

Now that zoom is discredited as accessibility support, the AG group should
do whatever is necessary to remove this barrier from the web experience of
people with low vision. We would like to be brought up to a 1980s level of
user interface.

Received on Thursday, 16 February 2017 02:10:32 UTC