Accessibility and the Dyslexic

Blogged by gary.turner on Mon, 2008-12-01 08:21

I have been meaning to pass on a series of articles related to the issues dyslexia causes for some time now. The series was published a couple of years ago, and Roger Johansson blogged about it a couple of weeks ago, bringing the series back to mind.

Dyslexia pretty much flummoxes me, so I'll assume you too. We can imagine most visual and mobility handicaps, but I, for one, have no way to anticipate the problems our designs might cause the dyslexic.

Dyslexia is not a single symptom disability. Designing for Dyslexics, by Mel Pedley, will straighten a lot of things out.

cheers,

gary

Hi Gary, Thanks for sharing

Posted by Tony on Mon, 2008-12-01 09:53

Hi Gary,
Thanks for sharing that.
Interesting to see as many as 1 in 10 people in the UK are dyslexic.

»

Glad you linked to that

Posted by Stomme poes on Fri, 2008-12-05 09:31

Glad you linked to that article, it was a nice read and while lower-contrast-is-easier-for-tired-eyes isn't new to me, I don't think I ever linked it to the dyslexic (making text larger and having text summaries have).

However, I had issue with this:

Quote:
Checkpoint 2.2 also includes the phrase “when viewed on a black and white screen.” Is this really a true web accessibility issue? In “Definitions of Web Accessibility,” I eventually came to the conclusion that web accessibility was about designing pages that were usable by “people with disabilities.” I then suggested that “disability” be defined as an “inability to pursue an activity because of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment.”

I’ve racked my brain but I cannot think of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that would necessitate the use of a black and white screen. I think the latter is far more likely to be the result of either financial hardship or free choice. Neither of which are medically determinable disabilities. So a hard line approach could reasonably question whether this group should even be mentioned in web accessibility guidelines!

Because not everyone thinks "accessibility" is limited to only the medically disabled, but the to freedom of the web and the ability of people to access information regardless of User Agent or web-browsing device (obviously, there's a cut-off point here somewhere, but for me, neither monochrome monitors nor the dyslexic is it).

*edit n/m found it in part 3!

»