RE: Relative Units for Font Size Scaling W3C requirement replaced by zoom techniques in new Browsers?

thanks everybody for input. I think classification if zooming is A or AA
level is still of interest. anyway, we plan to use/fulfil both levels.
 
Best regards,
Stefan


________________________________

	From: wai-xtech-request@w3.org [mailto:wai-xtech-request@w3.org]
On Behalf Of Gregory J. Rosmaita
	Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 5:34 AM
	To: Schnabel, Stefan
	Cc: wai-xtech@w3.org
	Subject: Re: Relative Units for Font Size Scaling W3C
requirement replaced by zoom techniques in new Browsers?
	
	
	aloha, stefan! zoom is to screen magnification as simple
text-to-speech engines are to screen readers... zooming only earns a
single-A compliance, in that it provides a BASE functionality (zooming
the viewport) just as a simple TTS engine performs BASE functions --
such as key echo, typing echo, announcing system messages -- but it is
NO substitute for a screen reader. likewise, for those with vision over
20/200 zoom is a great benefit, but those with less visual acuity need
software that will follow the flow defined for the document, not merely
zoom the viewport. likewise, there are those who benefit from a limited
viewport, with high magnification and often high-contrast, who benefit
either from supplemental speech and/or aural feedback in the form of
pure sound cues, something that zoom in IE7 and narrator on WinXP cannot
provide. narrator is better than nothing when one's main speech engine
freezes, crashes or just goes silent, but i wouldn't use it to do online
commerce or banking. absolute font values should -- in my opinion -- be
relegated to the print media type, while the screen media type should
use relative measurements to accomodate the user's desires -- even if a
user is viewing text at 75 times normal size, a change in font-size
defined using a percentage still applies to the zoomed text, producing
-- only on a larger scale -- the intended intent. absolute pixel and
point settings are meaningless outside of the print media selector --
not to mention direct derivatives of print conventions, which is where
it not only should remain, but where it belongs. so, scaling of fonts
according to percentage or using em is still necessary, and is a concept
that needs desperately to be ported to the values defined for aural CSS
(or, if you prefer, CSS3-Speech Module) instead of defining 50, on a
scale of 0 to 100 as the baseline from which aural styling starts to
affect aural rendering; increasing the richness, stress, or pitch by
degrees relative to whatever the users' default settings are, would be a
far more effective means of fine-tuning aural style sheets gregory.
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PEDESTRIAN, n. The variable (and audible) part of the roadway for an
automobile. -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_
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Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net Camera Obscura:
http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html UBATS: United Blind Advocates
for Talking Signs: http://ubats.org
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	-- "He who lives on Hope, dies farting." -- Benjamin Franklin,
Poor Richard's Almanack -- Gregory J. Rosmaita, unagi69@concentric.net
Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/