solstice wrote:
The purpose of the text re-sizer is for visually impaired people. As well as being disabled, many users wont be IT savvy. Very few non web professionals, disabled or otherwise, realise that they can resize text using their browser. I think youre looking at life through tech-y eyes!
if they can't see
your web site's text, they ain't gonna be able to see
anything else on their screen in any program. their problem is not going to be unique to your web site only. these people will have already addressed the (whole) issue themselves so they can not only visit your site, but
all web sites and use
all the programs they use on their pc; or they are used to asking for help and know where to get it.
the only time someone should run into a font size issue on a
specific single web site is if the web site uses too small of a default font size (not "comparable" to that which is used on other sites), or if it uses a method of declaring font sizes that is incompatible with internet explorer's buggy font-size adjustment. both of these are simple to fix in the site's css... and if a site's layout "breaks" when font sizes are changed via the browser, well then.. there's other things that need fixing first.
as far as being "visually impaired" -- they *
know* their limitations and abilities better than you or i or anyone else. 99 of 100 (including myself, btw..) will already have their text size set large enough (in their os and/or browser) for them, already have an obscenely large monitor set at far too low a resolution for "normal" folk (like my former secretary who worked with a 21 inch CRT running at 640x480), have a separate screen magnifier between their eyeballs and the screen (like another former co-worker), have screen magnifying software, or have a combination of these common solutions already in use...
and i think you are grossly underestimating the 'non web professional' -- i've been supporting the 'clueless and hopeless' since the dos 3 days, and over 1000 of them nationwide the last (nearly) 8 years. they may not be the brightest when it comes to avoiding spyware or installing drivers, etc... but many are pretty sharp when they
need to figure something out, a lot of them are smart enough to check the menus for answers, and virtually all of them know enough to ask for help when they need it.. especially for something at crucial as the ability to read the text on their screens.
