A naming

[bunn]

I have decided to name the people who choose to surf with their web browsers set to use larger font sizes. I have named them " The Big Font Folk". I think it helps to think of them as a tribe. That way people can Respect their Ethnic Folkways, rather than simply thinking of them as a gang of irritating squinters...

This mades me think of Littlenose the caveman, and the tribe of Bignoses. These are stories I have not thought about probably in about 30 years. Google seems to know nothing of them, though it did helpfully inform me that people with big noses have macrorrhinia.

Comments

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Yes! Respect my Ethnic Folkway! (Though, just possibly, it might be more accurate to think of them as Visually Impaired Folk...?)

And many Blessings on all those who write nice websites that don't lose all shape and half the text as soon as someone attempts to enlarge the font. The worst offenders are things that are presumably made with boxes or tables or something, so that once the font is enlarged, all the headings are completely out of place, and quite often bits of text end up *under* bits of other text so the whole thing is quite unreadable. And/or you end up having to do lots of scrolling *sideways* as well as vertically to see everything. Grrr. And that's *my* rant off my chest for today, whew ;-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The Visually Impaired Peoples inhabit a wide landscape, and are many and various in their folkways. There are the Big Font Folk, but also let us not forget the Magnifiers, the Ones Whose PCs Speak To Them, and the Brailleistas.

I must confess I don't think I always cater to the entire crowd as well as could be done with more time and effort, but I do try to keep in mind their existence and varied appliances.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

.. actually thinking about it, many of the Big Font Folk would not think of themselves as visually impaired. They think of the issue as 'damn, I must get new glasses' or 'why is this stupid monitor so small'.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

According to our library catalogue (which is, admittedly, is often a work of fiction when it comes to older books) we still have two Littlenose stories in stock, so if you're feeling nostalgic, and if the catalogue is actually telling the truth in this case, I could bring them home next weekend.

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

That's me. Bizarrely, since having Baby D quite suddenly I have gone all old-visioned. Presbyopia and inability to read font on laptop. Have currently got screen-rez turned down low (what a waste of expensive LCD eh) /and/ IE font size set to largest. IE font size doesn't help much as on many sites it has no effect (eg LJ sites of most ppl here), and on the others, as JAneS says, it just scrambles the page. Embarrassingly, my own website doesn't work well with large font sizes, but i have no idea what to do about that and way too many things on my to-do list to figure it out.
Neuromancer

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I am very grateful to the people, including Bunn, who advised me when I was buying my new laptop *not* to upgrade to a high-res shiny surfaced screen (since in my ignorance I would otherwise have assumed that 'better' screen would be better for vision problems!)

I find Firefox good for enlarging font on most people's LJ pages (and elsewhere). Just click ctrl and + as many times as it takes to get the size you want. What I want though is a way to make it a default feature of opening new windows or at least tags that it will go with the bigger font size or perhaps the one I last set it to if that is easier; I suspect there is an extension or something that will do this (or somewhere in the settings I'm incapable of finding) but as yet it eludes me ;-(

[bunn.livejournal.com]

While usually trying not to subscribe to the default Microsoft-bashing mindset, I do think it's rather appalling that IE allows website developers to lock font size. It just encourages lazy, 'print-minded' design, and I really can't see why they chose to do that. It wouldn't be quite so bad if it would at least magnify the whole page instead, but I don't think you can do that either.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I suspect after these many years, they would be a disappointment!

[chainmailmaiden]

I remember watching the Littlenose stories on Jackanory :-)