RE: User Stylesheets are Assistive Technology

Ø  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.

Wayne, it’s interesting you say this as in my experience Windows 10 has more options to change text scale and other modes like high contrast mode as well as resolution while the Mac only supports changing the screen resolution and a limited increase contrast mode that doesn’t seem to be consistently support even by Mac applications like the app store.  Fonts tend to be clearer on Mac especially on Chrome/Safari and the MacBook display screens are some of the easiest to see for me although PC laptop screens are getting better.

It is true in the latest Win 10 they got rid of the dialog that allow you to specify colors for titlebar, etc. (disappointing) but they do allow you to customize text, hyperlinks, disabled text, selected text, button text, and background.  So for you if high contrast is painful you can turn the high contrast mode into a low contrast mode using the colors you like.`  So you can use “high contrast” mode to actually make a low contrast mode with beige background and green text if you like.

To find it go to start > type high contrast settings press enter then > choose turn on high contrast > select a colored rectangle to customize contrast colors.  I believe this customization is recent and is different from what was previously there.

Jonathan

From: Wayne Dick [mailto:wayneedick@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 9:22 PM
To: Katie Haritos-Shea GMAIL
Cc: W3C WAI ig
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<mailto: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 and

background 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 are

technology 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<mailto: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<mailto: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