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Font size question

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From: Kathleen Anderson
Date: Oct 29, 2002 8:17AM

Yesterday I received the following email from a visitor to our site:

"I was on the state comptroller's page and when I went to this particular page: http://www.osc.state.ct.us/finance/whatis.htm I couldn't read the links or the text on the page. Of course I'm aware that I can adjust the size with the options in my browser but the font size was so unusually small. This is unacceptable. Could you please do something to rectify this."

I wrote back and said:

"Thank you for writing to with your concerns about the font size used on the Bond Allocation Database web site. The site was created using a stylesheet for accessibility reasons and uses the 'em' attribute for the font size. The value is set to .95, which is only 5% less than if no font size had been specified at all. The 'em' attribute allows the visitor to increase (or decrease) the text to his or her own comfort level.

Could you please tell me what browser and browser version you are using - perhaps there is an incompatibility issue that we are unaware of."

He wrote this back to me:

"I've got ie5.5 and I tried to adjust the font size but when I did it was too big and the text became too cumbersome. I wouldn't have emailed you unless it was really an issue but it is and when I couldn't resolve it on my own with the font adjustment in ie then I felt it necessary to notify you.

thanks for taking care of this for me."


The way he ended this last email makes it sound to me like he is expecting me to make changes to the site. This site has been up for at least two years, and this is the first time anyone has written to us with this issue. I have viewed the site in IE, Opera and Netscape, and I think it's working OK. I am not sure how to respond. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there a change I can make that will make everyone happy, including my boss?



Kathleen Anderson, Webmaster
State of Connecticut, Office of the State Comptroller
55 Elm Street, Hartford, Connecticut 06106
voice: (860) 702-3355 fax: (860) 702-3634
email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
URL: http://www.osc.state.ct.us/




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