legibility, dyslexia, I'm doin it rong

[shweta_narayan]

Via jimhines , 6 surprising bad practices that hurt dyslexic users.
ETA4: And polenth's follow-up post, A Dyslexic's Thoughts On Webpages

- I do left-justify stuff. (ETA3: Which is one thing I do right, I meant but did not say *facepalm*)
- But I double-space after periods, though switching from html to rich text seems to fix that for me. 
- And I use default fonts

Comments

[beccastareyes]

And while I'm at it, should I change to a different color scheme for ease of your reading?

I... actually rarely see your journal layout, since I read via my friendspage. (This is also why I don't bother with fancy layouts, since I assume everyone else also does this.)

[shweta_narayan]

Yeah I figure it matters most when people comment or click through lj-cuts, right? Because I at least see other people's format then...

[redbird]

For anyone with an LJ account, you can set things so you see your own formatting. From the FAQ:

All Pages: Enable the View comment pages from my Friends page in my own style option on the Display tab of the My Account Settings page. This option automatically adds ?style=mine to the URLs of comment pages on your Friends page, so you always see your style on other users' comment pages.

For the rest of the Web, and for people reading LJ who don't have accounts here, I am fond of the Readability page/bookmarklet/app: https://www.readability.com/

[oonh]

I'd just like to say, in lieu of an essay that's been percolating in me for a while, these reasons are *exactly* why I don't like TeX's default font (Computer Modern Roman). And it's not a matter of serifs by themselves, but the serifs looking identical to each other. Some serif typefaces use more or less relatively unique serifs, and some non-serif typefaces aren't stylistically unique enough to avoid the forest effect, where everything looks alike and it's difficult to make out the individual characters. This is not just a problem for dyslexics, either, but a lot of traditional math typographers are pretty lazy about things, since TeX supposedly "just works" and they use it, they blithely assume that what is produced is legible and clear, and in many occasions, despite their best attempts, it's not.

[shweta_narayan]

So far I only use Tex with specific packages (sffms and Berkeley diss), so haven't considered this issue. Good to know that the default is a font to avoid!

[zwol]

I think Computer Modern is just a bad font in general. I'm willing to cut Knuth a little slack for it because it was the first font he ever designed, but I take great care never to use it, despite using TeX for everything I don't use HTML for. (If a journal's house style requires it, fine, but the version of the paper on my website will be in a different font.)

On reading that article, what I wonder is whether TeX's more sophisticated line-breaking algorithm makes justified text less problematic. It's been a dream of mine to get browsers doing that (and hyphenation), so if it would be counterproductive I'd like to know. (I'm not dyslexic.)

[julieandrews]

I read you off of my flist, which is my own color scheme. And I would think anyone who had difficulty reading would tell their browser to use a different font? I understand some people aren't tech-savvy enough to realize they can or how, but.. at least it's one of the things they have control over themselves. Unlike the doublespace after period thing.

I gave _that_ up after high school! I was doing relay chat and MUSHing so regularly after that, which would've stripped out any doublespace anyway, that I lost the habit.

[shweta_narayan]

And I would think anyone who had difficulty reading would tell their browser to use a different font?

Perhaps? But I'd prefer not to put the entire onus on other people, especially since these seem to be changes I can make without too much spoon expenditure m'self.

Btw, what happened wrt Fogcon? I saw your message go by about the membership. Not that I'm able to go myself, but was sad to see you won't. My alternate self will miss you :)

[julieandrews]

Yea, see my below comment, that I was typing while you were typing. :)

I had originally planned to go to FOGCon with my parents. And do the whole California touristy thing. But they backed out on me. And it just seemed.. a lot of time, money and effort.

Given my past history with January and February cons and not going to them, I have come to the conclusion that some sort of mild winter depression sets in and I just can't envision going to a con. I don't know if I should just accept that in the future and don't plan to go to cons or should fight through and go to one already. Especially since two are in Boston! Literally an hour away!

[shweta_narayan]

I had originally planned to go to FOGCon with my parents...
Ah, I see.

Not that it's relevant to me just now, but in general I have found early-in-the-year cons to be BOTH a great way to combat winter blues AND a great way to pick up respiratory infections. So it may come down to how those balance out for you...

[trinker]

I like your layout, and find it soothing, with the exception of link color, which is indeed a little low-contrast.

[shweta_narayan]

Link color is def. something I will be paying much more attention to if/when I have spoons to look at other layouts.

I just made it less awful on my webpage; have no idea why I constantly ignore something that gives me problems and I therefore know gives other people problems.

[heavenscalyx]

I don't think that left-justifying is a problem -- the problem, as I read it, is justifying both left and right, which makes large gaps in the text and allows the river of white space effect. Which is why most places only left-justify, because justifying documents makes them a desktop publishing nightmare.

[shweta_narayan]

I ...fail at communication. I meant "left-justifying is one thing I do right", but I didn't actually say that...

[heavenscalyx]

Aha! Sorry for misunderstanding! I was reading quickly and much distracted on the train (there was this woman sitting next to me playing a very loud video game on her... Nintendo DS, I think).

[shweta_narayan]

It wasn't you! I just didn't say, and all the other items were things I might need to fix. Brain was not braining too clearly.