Re: Vertical vs. horizontal scrolling on a mobile device

There are two kinds of scrolling: page or column scrolling, and inline
scrolling. An app that goes from page to page or column to column as in
ebooks, carousels and data tables is harmless. It is what happens inside
the page or column content that is a barrier to reading. When you have to
scroll to read information within a line of text then your scrolling causes
the reader to lose context, forget past content on lines, have difficulty
navigating from line to line and take between 50-150 times the number of
scrolls that required by pure page or column scrolling.

So the problematic scrolling is not vertical or horizontal, but inline
scrolling. Inline scrolling is bad vertically or horizontally. It is just a
barrier to reading.

Best, Wayne

On Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 10:42 AM Garry Grant <garry@seoinc.com> wrote:

> Mike,
>
>
>
> I received this back from a blind user that is a bit above the average
> regarding technical aptitude. Here is the input he gave me. It's unedited,
> but it's directly from a daily user. If you need anything further, please
> don’t hesitate to reach out.
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
>
> Hi, Mr. Grant, I received your email from Amber about scrolling on a
> mobile device. My personal preference is to have things laid out
> horizontally, and I use vertical scrolling on my iPhone to navigate
> different types of fields such as headings or links horizontal scrolling
> seems to work better from an accessibility standpoint. For me as a blind
> user but this does not always work well for other people one of the things
> about apps that drives me completely crazy is the fact that occasionally I
> have to flip pages using several fingers on my phone screen usually this is
> not always evident with the app.
>
>
>
> A good example of this would be search results under Amazons app on the
> iPhone when you use VoiceOver to get to the next page you have to swipe up
> or down with three fingers to make the page scroll. From my perspective,
> most blind people keep swiping left or right with one finger to get to the
> next item. If it were me on a visual level, my phone usually wraps around
> from the first line to the second line as I keep swiping from left to right
> with my finger. Please note that on some devices when you activate the
> accessibility functions the jesters that a normally sighted person would
> use are now different due to the commands that the accessible software
> needs to operate. I hope this helps if you have any further questions
> please please feel free to reply to this email
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [image: EO Inc.]
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>
> *Garry Grant | CEO*
> garry@seoinc.com
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>
> _____________________________________
>
>
>
> *From:* Mike Elledge <melledge@yahoo.com>
> *Sent:* Friday, March 29, 2019 6:16 AM
> *To:* w3c-wai-gl@w3.org; Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk>
> *Subject:* Re: Vertical vs. horizontal scrolling on a mobile device
>
>
>
> Thanks, Patrick!
>
>
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> On Thursday, March 28, 2019, 5:48:26 PM EDT, Patrick H. Lauke <
> redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> On 28/03/2019 18:36, Mike Elledge wrote:
>
> > When is horizontal scrolling more accessible than vertical scrolling on
> > a *mobile device*? Always? Never? Sometimes?
>
> I would argue (though can't back this up with any hard user research)
> that for users who can operate a touchscreen, horizontal scrolling (as
> long as it's not required to read over-long lines of content - so to
> flick between carousel slides that are never wider than the viewport
> width) is a lot more natural and easy to do (particularly on a
> smartphone in portrait mode) than on a desktop.
>
>
>
> > I know that horizontal scrolling on a desktop is to be avoided, but
> > horizontal scrolling seems to be, from a design standpoint, acceptable
> > on a mobile device, to limit the length of page.
>
>
>
> Assuming you  mean "to be avoided" in the context of 1.4.10 Reflow,
> there's probably some more nuance here (see
> https://github.com/w3c/wcag/issues/668,
> <https://github.com/w3c/wcag/issues/668,%20>but I'd say it's a valid
> differentiation to make even on desktop). But yes, on a high level,
> horizontal scrolling is more unusual on desktop, and not that great
> since it can't be done easily/quickly just with a scrollwheel on a
> mouse, for instance.
>
> P
> --
> Patrick H. Lauke
>
> www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
> http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ <http://flickr.com/photos/redux/%20>|
> http://redux.deviantart.com
> twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke
>
>
>
> [image:
> https://t.sidekickopen10.com/s2t/o/5/f18dQhb0S7ks8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9gXrN7sKj6v4f9D-W5v7m9x5w02yCW2z90Kb2zlZNzVv97z31k1H6H0?si=4549899913920512&pi=91a5dd53-8236-497a-97fe-ed0ce8b2828a]
>