- From: Kristi R Schueler/NONFS/USDAFS <kschueler@fs.fed.us>
- Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 12:47:10 -0600
- To: "Ben Morris" <bmorris@activematter.com>
- Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org, w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org
Ben - BM: "Am I wrong to assume that those with impaired site (not completely blind) would generally have access to a screen magnifier?" KS: My understanding from the experience of my mother being legally blind since I was born to complete blindness over the course of 12 years or so, most legally blind (forgive me for not remembering what the numbers are on this, but she had several different periods where she was able to read with the help of newer glasses or special magnifiers etc. but was not permitted to drive any longer) persons should be able to obtain screen magnification or screen reading or even braille display adaptive equipment from their state services for the blind (this is in the U.S.). But, there are many who don't know their rights and don't know how to go about getting this stuff and they often don't make it easy to get either. The amount and ease varies on the state and sometimes even the county in which the disabled person lives. I may be stereotyping here, but my guess is that the type of person who is wanting to be on the Internet and looking at web pages and such is going to know the proper channels through which to get the adaptive equipment they would need. But it isn't proper to assume that. BM: "So that leaves us with those who need reading glasses, like many of the middle aged or seniors. They might have the text set to the largest size, but this would not have any effect on images or text that is specified to an exact size." KS: There is a browser out there that is commonly used in the disabled world, but likely wouldn't be widely known to those with vision impairment that does not qualify them for adaptive equipment and that is the Opera browser. This browser is superior for disabled persons because it is much easier and intuitive to set your own style sheets, turn off graphics and the like. Now, how does this work with text as images? Well, in the lower left (the default location) there is a drop down menu contain percentages from 20% to 1000% and it scales everything on the webpages accordingly, including images. It is important to note that if scaled too large it becomes difficult to read text as images because of degradation in the graphic quality and inability to display whole sentences, phrases or even words on the same screen, But for those with just slight impairment, it is a great solution to just double or triple the size of the web page! It has it's draw backs because it isn't as widely known as MSIE or NN and it also isn't free. They do have a 30 day free trial and it counts down only the days that you use it so you can have it on your machine for months as long as you haven't opened it thirty different days. It isn't expensive to register either. If I remember correctly it is about $30. More information is available on their website at http://www.opera.com. Kristi Schueler USFS - WOD, FC AQM Systems Web Developer (contractor) (970)295-5801 (voice) (970)295-5809 (fax)
Received on Monday, 2 October 2000 14:47:15 UTC