Make WordPress Core

Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Ticket #30450, comment 9


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Timestamp:
11/24/2014 09:23:45 PM (10 years ago)
Author:
sharonaustin
Comment:

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  • Ticket #30450, comment 9

    initial v1  
    55Here's the issue: Yes all those features you mentioned "work". In the particular case of the friend, he "can" use a mouse, but it is physically painful for him to do so, and it is physically challenging for him to do so.  It literally took us over an hour to open everything up and get situated....to write just one sentence.  So, people like my friend rely on visual communications to take hints as to "how" to proceed through an interface.
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    7 When vision is poor, as in the case of my friend, he looks for large clues to infer instructions as to "how" to proceed through the interface--that's why I think your plugin functionality is such a boon to accessibility; it strips away all that stuff on the sidebar that he would have to deal with, both cognitively, and physically.
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    9 Even stripped away to only the editor, the visual components speak unintended volumes.  There are only two international "languages" understood by mankind, one being Art (visual cues) and the other being Music (audio cues).  We are all born with certain "understandings" of what certain shapes and sounds mean.  We're hardwired to respond to visual and audio cues, and it's only with education that we start "over-riding" our native understanding of visual and audio communication.  We don't realize just how much we rely on text to "explain" our intentions with the visual layout, because we have the privilege of sight.  So, when someone has poor sight and can't read text easily, they fall back on the native reactions to shapes that we are all born with.
     8Even stripped away to only the editor, the visual components speak unintended volumes, and he relies very heavily on the organization of visual elements to guide him through the interface because he does not have the luxury of time of using the mouse (physically painful, and he can't see the text of the tool-tip anyhow), or "mouse grid" (way way too slow), or tabbing through each button individually to see what it does (focus problem).  In order to try to get through the day in a timely manner, he takes a guess out of what he is supposed to do by the layout and hierarchy of the visual components in place.  This is "how" he approaches interfaces of any sort.
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    11 Visually speaking, there is no "sense" from the buttons in the TinyMCE editor that one button does something different than the other buttons.  They're all gray and in a line--visually speaking, there's no "cue" that different things are going on in the buttons.  Again, you know that and I know it, because we read text, but that's not so easy for my friend.
     11Visually speaking, there is no "sense" from the buttons in the TinyMCE editor that one button does something different than the other buttons.  They're all gray and in a line--visually speaking, there's no "cue" that different things are going on in the buttons.  Again, you know that and I know it, because we read text, and can mouse over easily, and tab in and out without losing our place, but none of that is so easy for my friend.  Also, please note, that the challenges I speak about apply not only to my friend, but to many of the aged population, who are not normally considered disabled.
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    1313In visual communications, if you want to say that something is different from the rest of a group, it's a good idea to not only separate it out--i.e., move it away from the rest of the TinyMCE buttons--but to make it look different too.  For example, make it "round" instead of rectangular, and just by doing those two things alone, you will be sending visual cues to people like my friend that something different is going on with the Focus button.
     
    1515I'll try to put together a Photoshop image to show you what I'm talking about.
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    17 Thank you again for all your amazing work with this amazing functionality. Greatly appreciated.
     17Thank you again for all your amazing work with this amazing functionality. Hugely appreciated.
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