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Re: line length and myth of the fold

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Apr 18, 2008 12:00PM

Christophe Strobbe wrote:

> At 13:51 18/04/2008, Karl Groves wrote:

>> Not to totally derail this thread, but I'd like to point out that the belief
>> that long lines of text is bad is rather unfounded. I've read a number of
>> usability studies which have come to the conclusion that reading performance
>> (speed and accuracy) does not differ significantly between line lengths[1].

> I'd be very interested in the other studies you know, since line
> length is now in WCAG 2.0 (SC 1.4.8:
> <http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20-20071211/complete.html#visual-audio-contrast-visual-presentation>;).

I think it's worth jumping in here to say that it's not really about
speed/accuracy/performance for users with potential cognitive
disabilities. I'll hazard a guess that the usability studies mentioned
didn't take that into account.

I've recently discussed the 80 characters thing at length with Gregg
Vanderheiden from the WCAG WG.

See
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-comments-wcag20/2008Apr/0069.html

Also note that the very latest draft is here
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/WD-WCAG20-20080310/#visual-audio-contrast-visual-presentation

--
Patrick H. Lauke
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