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Note on ClearType fonts [was: PowerPointaccessibility-alt question]

for

From: Athol J Gow
Date: Apr 30, 2014 2:08PM

Thanks to all those who waded in on this question - your input was really helpful.


Athol J. Gow,


----- Original Message -----

From: "Olaf Drümmer" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 11:22:22 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Note on ClearType fonts [was: PowerPoint accessibility-alt question]

On 30 Apr 2014, at 17:10, Shawn Henry < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> fyi, some people have trouble reading these fonts. For example, see "Accessibility issues due to sub-pixel rendering" at <http://www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2012/text-customization/p7>;, which includes: "it is apparent that a number of other people struggle with ClearType and complain of blurring...".

there will always be someone struggling with something. Regarding display, this issue will go away over time with high DPI screens.

In general it should be noted that some of the burden on making content accessible is on the side of the tool presenting the content. So instead of avoiding the use of a certain font options should be considered like:
- use of a viewer that does not use ClearType
- increase text size (should reduce impact on ClearType induced problems)
- (temporarily) switch to grayscale display (should reduce impact of ClearType induced problems)
- use of text customisation functionality where text content is shown based on user controlled styling

Olaf