[Accessibility_sig] Video - Teaching the user how to resize text

[Sharron Rush]

Check it out! I happen to agree with Ian's opinion of the "resize 
text" widget...how about others?

---Ian Lloyd wrote---

I have already posted on Accesssify (and Twittered, Pownced etc etc -
but they are only any good if people are online at the time you send
it), so I wanted to target folks who I thought might be
receptive to this.

The background of why I did this is basically around whether web
developers should add 'resize text' widgets to pages (the answer, I
believe, is no - it's better to teach the user how to change size for
all sites). I thought I'd do my bit and decided to create a video
that I've placed on YouTube so that anyone can embed it, share it etc.

Here's the video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=54iSS7KVcos

I'd really appreciate it if you could share this as you see fit,
perhaps add it to your social bookmarking/tumblog/whatever -
basically, this was put together with the aim of educating the user
so we don't have to use these on-page widgets, and it would be a
shame if no-one got to see it.

Many thanks.

For info, here's a transcript of the video:

------

If you are finding it difficult to read some text when viewing a web
site you can resize the text up and down to suit your needs. However,
by default web browsers - for example Internet Explorer and Firefox -
do not make it obvious that you can do this; effectively they hide
these useful controls.

Using Internet Explorer, otherwise known as IE, you can change the
font size by selecting the View menu item and then selecting the Text
Size option - you have 5 size settings to pick from. This is useful
to know and once you select this setting, it is remembered for all
web sites that you visit.

A better option is to place a text resize control permanently on your
toolbar. To do this, press your right mouse button on the toolbar
area to bring up the contextual menu and choose 'Customize'. A list
of available toolbar buttons appears on the left. Scroll down to the
Text icon and then select 'Add'. You can also change the display of
the icons while you're hear, just in case you find the toolbar icons
a little small too. Once you hit the close button, you'll see a Text
Size control there, making it much easier to change the size.

If you are using IE 7, the process is much the same - right click on
the toolbar, but you need to select 'Customize Command Bar' then 'Add
or Remove Commands'

In Firefox, you can increase the font size in a similar way to
Internet Explorer. Unlike IE, you are not limited to 5 sizes (that
being two notches up and two notches down from the default).

Unfortunately Firefox does not provide a toolbar icon for text
resizing, even if you choose to customise. However, Patrick Lauke
from the University of Salford has created an extension that creates
a set of buttons that you can add to your toolbar. Simply go to the
Firefox Extensions page and search for the 'Text Size Toolbar', or go
to tinyurl.com/2ztudx. Once you've installed the extension and
restarted Firefox, right click on your toolbar and choose customise.
There you will find the resize buttons which you can drag and drop on
to your toolbar.

There are other ways that you can change text size on a web page. If
you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, simply hold down the CTRL key -
or the command key if you are a Mac user - and move the scroll wheel
up and down. For Firefox users, hold down the CTRL key and press the
plus (+) and minus (-) keys. Finally, if you are using Internet
Explorer 7, you can hold down the CTRL key and press the plus or
minus keys which will zoom the whole page in and out of view.
------

Ian Lloyd
---------------------------------
Stuff wot I wrote or co-wrote (better than this footer):
* Web Standards Creativity: http://tinyurl.com/36eqha [Friends of Ed]
* Pro CSS Techniques: http://tinyurl.com/y6r9zr [Apress]
* Build Your Own Web Site the Right Way (with HTML and CSS):
   http://beginningwebdesign.com/ [SitePoint]

AIM: uklloydi
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lloydi