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Re: User stylesheets

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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Jul 30, 2011 10:54AM

29.07.2011 16:46, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

> On Fri, 29 Jul 2011, Peter Krantz wrote:
>> Is anyone using user stylesheets?
>
> *raises hand*

Me too - even when using the web as a user, e.g. when I want to print a
page but Print Preview shows that it would fail miserably. I use Firefox
Web Developer Extension, which is great for browsing too, not just
development.

> I know I'm not a typical user,

Yes, typical users know little about stylesheets, and user stylesheets
are often "nice to have" rather than essential to accessibility.

> But actually, I know tons of users who use stylish
> (<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stylish/>).

Yes, it makes styling easier, but you still need to code CSS, as
opposite to using wysiwyg tools.

I am, like others who have commented, disappointed at the practical
failure of user stylesheets in most areas of potential use. But I don't
think the idea needs to be abandoned.

From the accessibility perspective, I think what we need is educated
users, typically without major disabilities, who are capable and willing
to help their relatives, friends, colleagues and others. After all, a
user style sheet need not be literally written by the user. It can be
designed by a helpful person who knows how to struggle through the
complexities of styling and set up a stylesheet for someone else,
according to his problems and preferences.

Many of the accessibility-related features can be set using just browser
settings, especially in Firefox, without CSS. I'm thinking of things
like overriding page fonts or color or setting a minimum font size. This
involves choosing between the available fonts (maybe even downloading
new fonts) and selecting the other settings, so this too is something
that people often benefit from other people's help, as there are many
technicalities.

And one might then need CSS to deal with issues that cannot be handled
with browser settings. Such as line height (which is often too small),
text alignment (left-aligned vs. centered, right-aligned, or justified),
and site-specific problems that may need specific fixes.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/