[Javascript] Accessibility (discussion)

Fri Nov 21 02:15:45 CST 2008

But you are welcome,

I already mentioned screen readers. I'm sure you will agree that 
managing screen resolutions means suiting only visually impaired, 
but not the blind.
As you pointed: They already have screen readers therefore all 
that is required from our side is to provide some suitable version 
of our content for their existing readers.
---
On your second point I guess, that's why we should avoid Ajax 
for as much as possible when managing important content. 
Although screenReaders should be reading from the screen. Or at 
least improve refresh capabilities to suite Ajax based also.
---
In most frequent cases, changing the text-size on browser doesn't 
give any effect, depending on the coder approach...
I think my explication on resolution font-size and page layout design
co-dependence was not clear at all.

On my current resolution (@1600px W) most of the pages I visit are 
hardly readable, simply because they were coded (sometimes) for 960, 
or (mainly) 1024, and (not often) 1280px screen widths. The text gets 
hard to read even for my over average sight.

Coding and recoding the same page layout for different resolutions 
is not an option. I remember that lots of Sites used to host at least 
two versions of the same design for different screens. That's a waste. 

On the other hand;
If you allow the user to change the text-size via browser side option
your layout will break, especially with fixed layouts. While fluid layouts
have almost completely vanished. The change of object sizes in a fixed 
layout will always cause something to either overflow, get clipped or similar.

In earlier posts;
Somebody mentioned Acrobat. So I was almost sure that I was very well
understood. - "Acrobat" is the (in one word) answer/description.
Enabling your page to automatically fit your current window size and 
of course your screen resolution. Afterwards you will either maximize
your window, or change the zoom ratio to suit your eyes.

JavaScript+dom&css can provide means for this functionality:
 1. Preserve your layout design; 
 2. Fit all screens; 
 3. Enhance visually impaired accessibility;
with "one in all" solution.

The same script will further enable you to:
provide extensibility to 'tab' into sections, zoom in and out of particular
parts of content for those who can't use mouse as easy as we do and
are of week sight too, which is something that can be achieved using 
1 javascript encapsulated module throughout your site.

The only issue I've encountered so far, is the lack of CSS standard to
implement the background-image-size control which as far as
I remember was proposed for CSS3 but not decided...

My best regards.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                      Troy III
                         progressive art enterprise
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 > Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:55:47 -0500> To: javascript at lists.evolt.org> From: tedd at sperling.com> Subject: Re: [Javascript] Accessibility (discussion)> CC: trojani2000 at hotmail.com> > At 4:50 AM +0000 11/20/08, Troy III Ajnej wrote:> > -snip- discussion re monitor size and aspect ratio> > I wasn't going to wade into this "Accessibility" discussion because > there's more than enough information on the net to answer any basic > questions one might have.> > But considering that "monitor size" is being discussed, I have to ask why?> > A screen reader does not read the screen -- that's a misnomer. It > reads the text that is delivered to the browser -- that's all. Screen > size and aspect ratio has no meaning to screen readers.> > The main problem (and not the only one) javascript has with > accessibility is that it changes the client-side visual content > without triggering a refresh. If you want to see an example of this, > get FireFox, load an AJAX page, and look at the difference between > the "Source" and "Generated Source". There is a difference and that > difference has not triggered the screen reader to produce new content > to the user and therein lies the problem.> > I think the pdf file that Scott posted is very good source for > accessibility concerns.> > http://diveintoaccessibility.org/> > However, even some of those tips are under discussion in causing more > difficulty than alternative methods, including no doing anything at > all. So, some of this is up for discussion, but monitor size and > aspect ratio is not much of a accessibility concern.> > Now this does not mean that what is on a monitor doesn't matter > because those with vision problems (other than blindness) need to be > considered as well. But things like using javascript to change the > size of the text is an overkill because that's more easily changed > via a browser. Whereas keeping text/background contrast high and > making the layout and images still make sense with different zoom > levels IS important> > Cheers,> > tedd> > -- > -------> http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com
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