Re: User Stylesheets are Assistive Technology

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018 09:51:22 +0200, Sean Murphy (seanmmur)  
<seanmmur@cisco.com> wrote:

>
> How many programs are available now an average user who knows nothing  
> about style sheets can build their own style sheet and utilise in a  
> browser?

An average user who kknows nothing about style sheets probably cannot do  
this. In part because there is little tooling.

Amaya long ago implemented a basically WYSIWYG method to apply some new  
style, and create a rule based on the example. This functionality is also  
in MS office products - where style sheets are an extremely helpful tool  
that I only ever see  used by a tiny fraction of people.

>
>
>> Does the community who benefit from this technology know about it and  
>> are using it?

If you mean all of them, then I am certain the anseer is no. If you mean  
some, then Wayne is an existence proof that the answer is yes. If you mean  
"How much of the community who could benefit..." then I suspect the answer  
is "a small fraction"...

>
>
>> What part of the disability community would benefit from this other  
>> than low vision and dyslexia?

It is likely that people with motor difficulties of various kinds would  
benefit from the ability to set sizes and spacing for interactive  
components. Being able to hide distracting moving things helps a few other  
groups. Handling colours effectively helps people who may or may not be in  
what you meant by "low vision". changed presentaation of video  
captions/subtitles helps a few different groups of users.

So I think we're probably only talking about something on the order of a  
third of the population, if the features were actually friendly enough to  
be usable without the kind of pain they currently require.

Just to think through the implications of the difference that  
implementation details make. Many browsers include a "minimum font size"  
feature. Unfortunately, when I use the Santander Bank website, increasing  
font size breaks it (due to a poorly designed site - this isn't the only  
issue they have) and I need to apply a work-around or turn off the feature  
that is supposed to help me on all websites. There are  other  strategies  
that would work better, if I could use a style sheet developed  
specifically for that site - and it seems reasonable to share something  
which increase font-size, rather than having each user make their own,  
because it is somewhat tricky.

I wrot before about userJS. One of the primary use cases was for browser  
manufacturers to patch websites that didn't work. There were employees at  
Opera who would write this code, and it was distributed to every Opera  
user. This was a job for a javascript expert, but their work helped  
millions of users (because in general they worked on sites where the  
problems affected millions of user at once).

>
> If the community does not know how to leverage this technology to make  
> their lives easier. Then I see this as a bigger issue. If the community  
> does know about >style sheets and can easily build them to their  
> specifications. Then isn’t it up to the community to make the vendors  
> aware of the importance of the feature?

This depends on what you mean by "the community". Taking as my starting  
point that it means "accessibility professionals, people with  
disabilities, and web technology professionals whose responsibility  
includes thinking about user experience" I think the answer is yes. If the  
meaning of "the community" should not be at least that broad, I am  
surprised, and would like some explanation to help understand the argument.

cheers

Chaals

>
>
> From: Wayne Dick <wayneedick@gmail.com>Sent: Wednesday, 18 July 2018  
> 11:22 AM
> To: Katie Haritos-Shea GMAIL <ryladog@gmail.com>
> Cc: W3C WAI ig <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> Subject: Re: User Stylesheets are Assistive Technology
>
>
> Kazuhito,
>
>
> Brilliant observation. Actually I am working on a JSON protocol to pass  
> to programs to >forward a user's typographic needs. That could be easily  
> taken up by browsers. Until then >user style sheets fill a gap. I use  
> them to work. Like reading Safaribooksonline. I use the >stylesheet  
> given in this list so I can read technology. The sample code comes out  
> terrible, but >I copy it and read it in Sublime where it word wraps.
>
>
> The problem is that the actual tools people use to live and work are  
> recognized as necessary >AT by the Accessibility Group. So, browsers and  
> operating systems just throw them away and >people who need them are  
> shut out of basic acts like reading. It happens to me once a year.
>
>
> The latest was when Windows discontinued adjustable user interfaces. It  
> was important AT. I >had to move to the Mac. To use stylesheets for  
> accessibility on Chrome we used to use >Stylish, but they scrape  
> personal data and sell it. There is a program called Stylus but I'm  
> >sticking with Safari until they break stylesheets. They probably will  
> eventually, because >stylesheets are not recognized as a technology that  
> people with disabilities depend on to >maintain literacy.
>
>
> Best all, Wayne
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 5:27 PM Wayne Dick <wayneedick@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Joe first,
>>
>> Here is a modest stylesheet.
>>
>>/* Simple Style Sheet to Reset Color and Font Size for Safari
>> */
>> html, iframe, body, p, ol, li, dt, dd, dl, div, span, section, article,  
>> header, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, footer, aside, a {
>>  background-color: #c0b098 !important;
>>  color: #000000 !important;
>>  font-size: 20px !important;
>>  line-height: 1.35em !important;
>>  letter-spacing: 0.06em !important;
>>  word-spacing: 0.09em !important;
>> }
>>
>> a {
>>  font-size: 20px !important;
>>  color: brown !important;
>> }
>> In the modern context it is best intervene only a little.Here I just  
>> change font-size up by 25%, spacing andbackground color. This works on  
>> most responsive pages.
>> Most pages can take this amount of change.Sometimes changing color  
>> disables a page for no obvious reason.
>> Change my colors as you need.
>> Lastly, sometimes non-responsive pages do well with very large
>> fonts. On gitHub I use 32px font and then zoom to 125%.
>> Katie:
>> My pages are assistive technology. They aretechnology that enable me to  
>> read. It is only prejudice that
>> does not recognize this as legitimate AT.
>>Best to all, Wayne
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 5:02 PM Katie Haritos-Shea <ryladog@gmail.com>  
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Wayne,
>>>
>>>
>>> I get what you are saying.
>>>
>>>
>>> I personally refer to two things related to user needs in relation to  
>>> technology, Assitive Technologies and Adaptive Techniques.
>>>
>>>
>>> User style sheets seem to fall somewhere in between those two for me.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 7:57 PM Wayne Dick <wayneedick@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> There are lots of people who claim to be accessibility experts who  
>>>> disregard the value of >>>>user stylesheets as a significant  
>>>> technology to mitigate problems of visual interface. >>>>Actually  
>>>> they work quite well.
>>>>
>>>> This technology is used primarily be people who are left out of the  
>>>> mainstream ATs. They >>>>are a way to change colors, ensure a  
>>>> personalized contrast ration, control column width >>>>and many other  
>>>> things.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I use Safari because the browser will host user stylesheets. It is  
>>>> too bad that other >>>>browsers decided to stop supporting this  
>>>> important assistive technology.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think the AG should at least recognize that this is a form of  
>>>> assistive technology that is >>>>available in a technology landscape  
>>>> that offers almost nothing useful for most people with >>>>low vision  
>>>> and cognitive disabilities.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> For those who want to tell me how wonderful screen magnifiers are if  
>>>> I just used them >>>>correctly, don't bother. I probably know how to  
>>>> use them better than you. For my needs, >>>>screen magnification  
>>>> scores zero.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Wayne Dick



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Chaals: Charles (McCathie) Nevile find more at https://yandex.com
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