100 Days of A11y

Day 61: Identifying A11y Issues for Users Who Magnify Their Screen

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What I learned today

Windows has a built-in magnifier, as does Apple, but it often isn't always strong enough or robust to help everyone with low vision. Alternative magnification software includes:

For mobile, I knew Apple phones and tablets had zoom built in, but Android devices have magnification built-in, too.

Apple Watch has a zoom feature (YouTube)!

Trying to learn all things accessibility, I'm constantly having to rediscover keyboard shortcuts:

Never assume that two low vision people are alike. Everyone with low vision has their underlying reasons of why they struggle with that disability. The point is to add flexibility for their particular experience with low vision and the strategies they use to access content and services on the web.

Challenges people who enable magnification may encounter on the web:

WebAIM's advice:

The general rule when designing for low vision is to make everything configurable. If the text is real text, users can enlarge it, change its color, and change the background color. If the layout is in percentages, the screen can be widened or narrowed to meet the user's needs. Configurability is the key.

WCAG supports people with low vision through it's perceivable principle. 15 reasons to consider designing to include low vision users who magnify their screen: