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Re: Interesting cause: http://contrastrebellion.com

for

From: Léonie Watson
Date: Jul 29, 2011 1:12PM

John Foliot wrote:
"I think it reinforces the idea that allowing user-supplied style-sheets is
a significant a11y consideration - in other words authors should avoid
inline styles whenever possible in favor of linked styles so that some users
who desire alternative display contrasts (etc.) can do so with
stability/predictability. I believe Wayne Dick (CSU system) has written on
this issue in the past, but I was unable to actually put my hands on
anything quickly."

From a development perspective that makes sense. I'm not sure that
many people would have the knowledge to put their own style sheet together
though?



Léonie.




-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of John Foliot
Sent: 28 July 2011 19:13
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Interesting cause: http://contrastrebellion.com

Jared Smith wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 12:36 AM, John Foliot < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
> > I long ago saw an actual study result that showed that slightly
> > lower contrast actually helped with some dyslexic users.
>
> This introduces some interesting questions. High contrast is the
> default for... well, everything. Chances are that 99% of you are
> reading this text in high contrast black on white. Should there be a
> burden on developers to deviate from something that is the norm to
> account for this relatively rare situation?

I think it reinforces the idea that allowing user-supplied style-sheets is a
significant a11y consideration - in other words authors should avoid inline
styles whenever possible in favor of linked styles so that some users who
desire alternative display contrasts (etc.) can do so with
stability/predictability. I believe Wayne Dick (CSU system) has written on
this issue in the past, but I was unable to actually put my hands on
anything quickly.

>
> I'm not arguing that these users should be ignored because they might
> be few in number, but I am suggesting that the burden here should
> probably be on the end user, who can relatively easily decrease
> contrast. On my Mac, I can tap the contrast button down a couple
> times. Increasing or reversing contrast, on the other hand, is a bit
> more difficult.

Agreed, for the most part this will/should remain an end-user configuration
issue. My reverse contrast friend has set her system up so that the reverse
contrast is system wide. However as content authors we should still be
conscious of the fact that finer control can be applied via user
style-sheets, so again avoiding in-line styles has benefits beyond "ease of
editing" considerations.

JF