Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I have looked into this and on Monday, my site went from px to em units for font sizes, so they are resizable in a browser. However, the number of complaints about the site has risen 'Your font is too small'. And yet it is too hard to explain to every customer (especially those who just move on to the next site) that it is THEIR settings that are wrong, not mine!
How can we comply to assist disabled people in this situation, when we are cutting of a lot of abled people? (And when does the Ability Discrimination Act come out? :) )
How does everyone else use resizable text or is px the norm?
71% verdana is still legible at smallest text setting in IE/win
ben
I have experimented with the different formats available and have always returned to px. The relative sizes in CSS would be nice (x-small etc.) but support for them is patchy at best.
relative sizes in CSS would be nice (x-small etc.) but support for them is patchy at best.
PCInk give the more finiky visitors the ability to fine tune font sizes
via javascript and save preferences with a cookie (then check on body load)
Most browsers (except Netscape 4) may support relative font sizing but the actual rendering of the text varies widely. IE5 for Windows has a bug in that it displays 'small' as 'medium', which throws every other size out accordingly.
While relative keyword font sizing is good in theory, I would prefer to have control over my layout than leave it to the whims of the user's browser ;).
But that's the whole point, isn't it. We have to code for six year old browsers, or at least check them.
The law is the law and we must at least check 6 year old browsers so that we comply. You can't break the speed limit because a road is over 20 years old, for example.
Because of this law, business sites that do not work in NN4 can be fined.
However, if the font sizing does not work in NN4 using that method, it should not matter because all the text will then be the same size (the users choice), therefore it would be resizable and be passable by the law.
Thanks, benihana, your information is probably helpful to a lot of people here. I tried some font tags using the same text sized at the default, 100%, 12px and 1em with some interesting results:
1) Internet Explorer resizes %, but the size difference is less than 'em'
2) Internet Explorer holds the 'px' size no matter what the user selects (will, in effect, become illegal in the UK for a business site)
3) Netscape and Opera resize everything identically, including px, em and % - probably the correct way of doing things.
The final part of the disability discrimination act (in the UK) comes into force in 2004 and includes website accessibility.
Does the US have such a law?
So if your site looks like one big block of text in NS1, because it does not support CSS, that is fine - the disabled person can still see it. But if it uses JavaScript/Flash/Non-resizable text with no alternatives, they can be fined.
It is no different to any other business in the UK - make it difficult for a wheelchair user to access your sevices and you can be fined - however, you can get a grant for building ramps and so forth, so maybe we will be able to claim a grant in order to improve our sites!
The final part of the disability discrimination act (in the UK) comes into force in 2004 and includes website accessibility.
Can someone post a snippet of that law that discusses font sizes? Not the whole thing, but just the sentence or two that states font size is an issue.
The reason I ask this? IE is the only browser that I am aware of that does not allow you to resize the font if the site uses a fixed type size like px. But, IE offers an accessbility option to override the fixed font sizing...
From IE > Tools > Internet Options > Accessibility > Ignore font sizes specified on web pages
I too have tried to convert to em in recent months but have received the same complaints you have. IE just does not interpret ems like the other browsers do. And, when over 90% of your audience is using IE, you need to cater to them first and then deal with the other browsers if needed.
I ended up using a base percentage on one site...
body {
font-size:90%;}
}
And then I used ems for the remaining content. Worked like a charm but there were still some complaints about font size (very minimal). There are just some people who do not know how to adjust their font size no matter what browser they are using.
For most of the sites I manage, 12/13/14px is my preferred font size. I'll sometimes use 11px within navigation elements to increase usable real estate.
Does the US have such a law?The U.S. has an older law, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
In Access Now, Inc., et al. v. Southwest Airlines, Co.
(Southern District of Florida, October 18, 2002), the federal court ruled that a website does not constitute a "place of public accommodation" and thus SWA was not obligated to provide a site accessible to the visually impaired.
Government sites, however, are specifically subject to the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 to the ADA. This requires all federal government technology systems, as well as the systems of companies, state/local governments, or organizations which do business with the government, to be accessible according to the guidelines in Section 508. See also
[section508.gov...]
[ada.gov...]
By replacing your link stylesheet line with
@import "null?\"\{";
@import "stylesheet.css"; Will halt stylesheet loading for all old browsers. Problem solved. Mean and nasty, but UK law compliant?
What people should do is make the pages accessible (which is more than just font scaling) in devices the disabled do use. Most likely they are using a specialized reader, a browser that already scales the page, or IE with its disability option. Being the predominent browser though there's no excuse for pages not being accessible in IE without the option.
Don't worry about making your sites accessible in NS4 or the other older browsers. Readable -- yes. Accessible -- no. These are used by the able bodied population. Someone who has eye problems is not going to use an ancient browser.
IMHO it's impossible to make blanket assumptions about what a particular sector uses. From my personal experience I would speculate that browser distribution amongst folks with a visual impairment would approximate the browser distribution in the sighted community.
I previously worked with a blind individual who used NN4 with Jaws. Why did he use NN4? 'Cos that's what all his (sighted) colleagues used!
