My thanks to Smiley Cat for digging up this one. The Disability Rights Commission did a survey of 1,000 sites and found those that were Accessible could be navigated much quicker by the able-bodied too.

As previously mentioned, we’ve found something similar too for reading. If you optimise the reading experience for those with some visual impairment the rest of us can read the text much faster too. Up to twice as fast , depending on the circumstances. This makes perfect sense. If it is easier for the eyes to focus on something they can do the job quicker. ReadPal simply automates this for the user so they don’t have to rely on web-designers with a different agenda. They can always read in their preferred fonts, size and colors.
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Visit site here

tags: webdesign, software, accessibility, visual, usability, impairment, jaws, disability,

Often the universities set trends and standards. However, recently they have come in for a lot of flack because their websites often fall short on usability / accessibility standards. The devolved structure and multiple people posting on their sites probably mean that high standards are difficult to maintain.

By contrast most companies would have a web-master who vets changes to their web presence. This single gatekeeper system allows for easy imposition of minimal usability standards. The unwieldy nature of universities and arguments over academic freedom mean that the oversight of web material is unlikely to improve much.

So what can they do?

As much of their material is viewed from within universities themselves there is an obvious answer. They can facilitate their students and workers by loading decent screen-readers onto every campus computer. Jaws works well for those with no or little sight, ReadPal for the rest of us. Then, at least, if the univeristy sites have dreadful usability they can still be accessed.

As trend setters they could perhaps influence wider society to take greater care of us all.
Visit site here

tags: free, software, accessibility, visual, usability, impairment, jaws, university,

Jaws is great and has made computers accessible to many. However, often users don’t actually need the content to be read aloud to them. They only need it properly formatted to suit their eyes. The benefits of better, personalised formatting are for all not just the visually impaired.

ReadPal does all this and is completely free for personal use … so download it, enjoy it and tell all your friends.

Visit site here

tags: free, software, accessibility, visual, usability, impairment, jaws,

I’m often asked where Irish Tech start-ups should go for information. People will always think of Enterprise Ireland, etc., and be able to get ‘hard’ information there and by following the links.  (By the way I’ve always found the support from EI in Sligo to be great. They’ve certainly contributed to our success). However, to get a feel for what’s happening I’m found the excellent Eirepreneur’s blog always informative and on the pulse.

“Accessibility is not for me - I can see OK”. This is the general attitude of the population, including web designers and writers.

Good web design is not an ‘us or them’ scenario. Making your website more user-friendly, especially for the visually impaired, usually ensures a much more pleasant experience for all. The little changes that you might make, font, color combinations, size, etc. make it better for everyone.

At ReadPal we’ve tried to quantify this. Reading comfort is subjective and hard to measure. So to put an actual figure on it we used reading-speed as a proxy. It stands to reason that simple changes that enable you to read the same text faster means that you read it more easily and comfortably.

We found that people can read up to twice as fast if the text is presented in the most eye-friendly way. We took a Microsoft standard, Time New Roman font, size 10 , one column across the screen and compared people’s reading speed to their favorite ReadPal mode. The results were dramatic. And this was with people with apparently ‘normal’ sight.

We recommend that you try it yourself. Use a long text as the eye tires as you go on. Compare the Microsoft standard format with your favourite from ReadPal. (Use the double column mode if you are new to ReadPal for this test - but the more experienced will be able to get even better results with the other modes).

Interestingly, the changes that allow ‘normal’-sighted people to read faster are the exact changes that allow the visually-impaired to read your text too. Happy co-incidence. So when you think of accessibility you make life better for us all.

To take the test just download ReadPal. (It is free to the consumer).

Lastly, Steve Krug would be one of my heroes on Web-design. Jeffrey Zeldman wrote an excellent blog on him that is well worth visiting.

Happy reading.

tags: free, software, accessibility, visual, usability, impairment, Steve Krug,

Glare is a huge problem for many of us reading on computer screens. The easiest way to eliminate it is to use the black-out mode of ReadPal when reading. When used with a large font this is so effective you can even read outside!

We find that 25% grey on a black background is better than white text. It is less jarring on the eyes and the ‘after-image’ is not so troublesome.

ReadPal is now completely free for the consumer so download it and start reading with less glare.

There is a nice list of tip to reduce glare by James Yeang on the Friedbeef’s Tech Blog .

This is how clearly you could read with ReadPal!

You take control over how you read. Be it Webpages, text documents, emails or Word documents. You can read them all in clear, large fonts with your preferred colour combinations. Just press the ReadPal button to read this way.
I like to read with the font size 48, Tahoma in the ‘Black-Out’ mode. This minimises glare and visual stress - I even read in bed this way!

ReadPal is now free for consumers and can be set up in a couple of minutes. Visit the site. I’ll be blogging here again on accessibility issues so do revisit. Another good blog to check out is Matt Bailey’s Accessibility Blog

Reading is our number 1 task on a computer… yet most of us hate it. We prefer to print out things just to read them. Instead download ReadPal - it only takes a minute- and you will be reading faster and better on-screen.

We haven’t updated our website yet but press on the Free Trial button to get it completely free. (For business use you still have to pay $39).

www.readpal.com

Happy and fast reading!