WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: typical user stylesheet settings

for

From: Nathalie Sequeira
Date: Feb 3, 2014 1:00AM


Hello Tim and all,

thank you very much for the description of the stylesheet you used to
use -- and especially the insight I could gain from your description of
how you used it.
I find it very helpful as it helps "put myself in the shoes" of people
who perceive the web differently than I do.

Meanwhile, I have continued my search, and have found a few articles by
Wayne Dick, which also answer why I cannot find anything much about
"typical" user stylesheets:

"There are more than 30 causes of low vision, and around 15 subsystems
of the eye and brain that can be attacked to produce low vision. There
are literally hundreds of ways partial sight can manifest itself."
(http://blog.knowbility.org/content/nose-to-the-page-4/)

So, if user stylesheets are to cater to the specific needs of an
individual, they will necessarily be very varied in how they are configured.

OTOH, I still think it must be possible to boil this variety down to a
few generalized groups, such as "high contrast" similar to Tim's
example, or "low luminosity contrast" (I have been reading that people
with dyslexia profit from that kind of setting).

Also, the choices available in Silas Brown's stylesheet maker that Olaf
linked to, or even google Accessibility's "High Contrast" Addon for
Chrome must be based on some reasoning as to "typical" user needs.

Thus, I will delve further into this and will gladly share what I find
to the list :)
Nathalie