JeffCroft.com

10.08.2008 // 4 CommentsDave Shea: Zoom

Dave Shea: Zoom

Dave chimes in on a topic that is very relevant to me lately. He says:

I wonder whether designing around scaling text is still a skill we need to hold on to, and for how long.

I also wondered aloud whether we still need to be using relative unit for type in my typography talk in Sydney a couple weeks ago, and the Twitter haters came out of the woodwork to say that I didn’t care about accessibility and and I was “not thinking about about my fellow man.” It’ll be interesting to see how they react when Dave wonders the same thing.

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  1. 001 // Erik Vorhes // 10.08.2008 // 7:06 PM

    As a pretty hardcore accessibility advocate, I agree with you. Not much else to add at this point—you and Dave Shea sum it up pretty well—but I thought you’d like to know that at least some of us accessibility obsessives aren’t about to go off on you (or anyone) just for thinking about new, perhaps better, ways of doing things.

    Now about running your site through the W3C validators… (Just kidding! Just kidding! Really!)

  2. 002 // Andrew Ingram // 10.09.2008 // 1:15 AM

    I was under the impression that the consensus had been that we should be using whatever unit we want for fonts, for at least the last year or so.

    Given that IE is the only major browser that doesn’t scale px units and every OS has an alternative that does things correctly, how exactly is it our responsibility to use em units instead of anything else when the onus is on those with a disability to use the right tool for the job? If the blind can use screen-readers and the deaf can use hearing aids, I think those who have to squint at small fonts can be asked to use a browser that allows them to scale things up.

    Accessibility doesn’t mean pandering to the demands of those who aren’t willing to even meet you halfway and use tools that are available.

  3. 003 // Jeff Croft // 10.12.2008 // 8:19 AM

    I was under the impression that the consensus had been that we should be using whatever unit we want for fonts, for at least the last year or so.

    That’s been my personal stance, but I can tell you with a great deal of certainty there’s no consensus about it. Like I said, the crowd (in general) at Web Directions South definitely didn’t like that suggestion.

    If the blind can use screen-readers and the deaf can use hearing aids, I think those who have to squint at small fonts can be asked to use a browser that allows them to scale things up. Accessibility doesn’t mean pandering to the demands of those who aren’t willing to even meet you halfway and use tools that are available.

    Amen, brother. :)

  4. 004 // Jeff Croft // 10.12.2008 // 8:20 AM

    As a pretty hardcore accessibility advocate, I agree with you. Not much else to add at this point—you and Dave Shea sum it up pretty well—but I thought you’d like to know that at least some of us accessibility obsessives aren’t about to go off on you (or anyone) just for thinking about new, perhaps better, ways of doing things.

    Thanks for that, Erik! Glad to see more progressive accessibility guys hanging around! :)

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