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Re: Font resizing and change contrast

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From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Mar 29, 2012 2:51PM

iOS devices have System Zoom which magnifies the entire operating system cutting off other areas of the screen. Not very useful for reading wide text because there will be a lot of panning left and right. VoiceOver and System Zoom cannot be used at the same time. Pinch to Zoom also cuts off areas and requires panning back and forth.

The Large Text feature, which is what these text size widgets accomplish, is only available in Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, and Notes. It does not work in the default Mobile Safari browser. The text resize widget you use can change the text size however big or small you wish depending on how it's coded.

It would be nice for Apple to include Mobile Safari in the Large Text settings. Users can get around webpages with hard to read text by using Safari's Reader option or the more useful Readability Bookmarklet. Reader does not work on all web pages.

Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
Deque Systems
<EMAIL REMOVED>
www.PaulJAdam.com
@pauljadam on Twitter

On Mar 29, 2012, at 3:21 PM, John E Brandt wrote:

>>> I think they are very helpful for people on mobile browsers like the
> iPhone & iPad where there are no options to increase your font size like you
> can do with desktop browsers.<<
>
> I am confused by this comment. The Mac iOS has zoom text assistive
> technology (AT) built into the operating system; has for the past two years.
> This is in addition to VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader, as well as a
> feature allowing the user to reverse the screen from black on white to white
> on black.
>
> I will grant you that this is not "font resizing" as zoom simply increases
> everything on the screen. But most of font enlargement widgets have a very
> small range to which you can enlarge the font size and my experience with
> zoom usually allows for a higher degree of screen magnification.
>
> On the iPad/iPod, there are some apps that have font resizing functionality
> included. The e-book reader in iOS, for example, has a font resizer tool as
> well as the ability to change the font type allowing the user a fair amount
> of control.
>
> In addition, on most tablet devices (iOS and Android), I am fairly certain
> that all you have to do to increase size/zoom in is use the reverse-pinch
> gesture. Not sure about this on e-readers like Kindle and Nook.
>
> For my own $0.02, I personally advocate against adding font-resize to
> websites (even though I've used some CMS templates that have those features
> built in). Apart from folks who may be experimenting with changing font
> size, if the user needs special settings or AT to view content on websites,
> they probably already have that installed and I don't want to add anything
> that will mess up those settings or that equipment.
>
> This question has come up time and again in this list and it usually comes
> down to personal preference.
>
> ~j
>
> John E. Brandt
> www.jebswebs.com
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> 207-622-7937
> Augusta, Maine, USA
>
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