My new computer setup (PC on the TV from the sofa) forces me to fiddle with zooms and font sizes to make reading long texts sufferable. This has opened my eyes to the matters of website accessibility (as in their flexibility to adapt to users special needs). I am afraid that the SDMB is failing miserably in this aspect.
Font sizes are fixed. That means that adjusting it on my browser has absolutely no effect.
Also, although the layout is liquid (it adjust to the window width), when you zoom in, it keeps the width of the original window, forcing you to side-scroll.
So long story short, There is no way I can adjust this site so I don’t have to squint at the screen or sit closer to the screen.
Changing the DPI settings in the Displays Control Panel does help a bit, but you can only go so far with that.
I am surprised that a site that houses so many technically inclined people and also so many minorities and people sensible to minority needs, has remained blind to this.
Is there any chance that this will be addressed? Is it in the pipeline?
Unless there has been a wholesale shift to this way of browsing – which I may well have missed – I would think the overwhelming number of people that see this board do so from a computer monitor of some kind, which admittedly has different perspective and etc from a tv set.
They seem to have few problems with the display, as we have not had a lot of complaints in that department.
I’m sorry your experience is not as good as you would like it to be but I don’t know how we can display to suit you and everyone else as well, especially as how a page displays varies depending on equipment and etc.
This would appear to be more of a customer service issue for you and one of your vendors there – your computer company, the tv maker? I dunno.
Perhaps the selfsame technically inclined people can give you some pointers on how to make this a better experience for you – but that would be more of a General Questions query. I’m going to ask you to reframe your question and post it there.
In Firefox, if you hold down the CTRL key and use the mouse wheel the font size can be adjusted. A scroll bar does appear at larger sizes, but the text of the thread remains visible without need for scrolling.
I just tried it in Netscape and it does work. I guess it is just one more case of IE being sucky (yes, I know, I should have uninstalled it years ago)
thanks for the tip.
The issue, though, is relevant not only for people surfing from a couch (which I believe is a very small minority). There are all kinds of people with eyesight deficiencies and impediments that routinely need to adjust their font sizes. And IE, sucky as it might be, still holds a very large percentage of the market, I believe.
An accessible website must be viewable on all devices, and the diversity of web browsing devices and screen sizes out there is definitely growing. I do suggest that the SDMB look into this. the entire look of the site is very, ahem, retro (as much as it is content that matters). It may be worth the effort.
Ah, no. An accessible web site needs to meet the requirements of WCAG 1.0, or in the case of federal tax dollar web sites, Section 508. To the best of my knowledge, neither require sites to be “viewable on all devices.”
I think that the best long run solution for you would probably be to install Firefox + GreaseMonkey to increase the font size on the SDMB and other sites where you have problems. There’s also an extension I’ve never tried called Accessibar which claims to be able to change fonts. I would really recommend Firefox + some sort of extension.
Also - have you tried using the Windows Magnifier? On my computer, it’s located at Start >> Programs >> Accessories >> Accessability >> Magnifier
Well, in the interests of science, I installed and tested Accessibar (a Firefox extension).
I can honestly say it’s exactly what you need. Everything on my screen right now is in a solid 72-point font. I can see everything ridiculously clearly. It’s actually hard to type/proofread because everything is so big!
So… steps to take:
(1) install Firefox
(2) go to “Add-ons” on the Firefox website and search for “Font”
(3) scroll down until you see Accessibar.
(4) download/install Accessibar
(5) restart Firefox
(6) click on the Font tab on the Accessibar and adjust to your heart’s content.
From a non-legal point of view, an accessible website must be accessible to a user base as wide as the owner considers it cost effective to cater to. I guess that people smart enough to read the SD is smart enough to avoid IE.
Thanks for the tip on Accessibar. Will try it if just using Netscape doesn’t make me happy.
I switch capriciously between both and it just happened that my SDMB bookmark was in IE. Will start seeing it on Netscape and see how it goes.
A quick word of caution: After I uninstalled Accessibar, it left all my font / size settings (on Firefox) totally whacked. I eventually had to start Firefox in safe mode and restore all the default settings.
Just a caution out there for other lab rats. I still think it’s the OP’s best bet.
You do not need an extension in Firefox to increase the font size. It already exists in FF. Accessibar is great if you need/want all the other acessibility bells and whistles.
Previous mention of <CTRL>(use the mouse wheel works).
Or, …
Use <CTRL>+ to increase the font size.
Use <CTRL>- to decrease the font size.
Use <CTRL>0 to return the font size to normal.
Or, use the tool list at the top of the browser window and select [ View | Text Size } where you will find what I just typed.
I use Firefox, and I think it’s much better than IE. However, if you don’t want to switch, IE already handles this. Click on Tools/Internet options. Click on the “accessibility” button on the lower right corner of the pane. Then check “ignore font sizes specified on webpages”.
I found the tip posted here a while ago. Glad to pass it along.
One of the great things about FF is that if it doesn’t work quite the way you want, someone has probably written an extension that’ll make it work that way. I use one called Autohide from http://www.krickelkrackel.de/autohide/. This is not available on the official FF site for some reason, but it works fine. If you want something from the official site, there are actually a handful of others there that’ll do this.
Oh? In that case, I’m officially levying a complaint that I can’t view the Straight Dope on my wristwatch. Nor on my Swiss army knife, nor my electric mixer, for that matter.