Heck, I find it hard to read black on white if there are no other color fields on the page (for example, WebWord makes my eyes water - I can only read for about 5 minutes at a time), and I don't have dyslexia. I'd hate to see what it is like for someone particularly sensitive.

In my designs, I try to have more narrow text fields with a light, matte background or a color field nearby that helps to mute the shimmery effect of so much white on the screen. I am often laughed at, so it's nice to have some evidence besides the old 70% contrast guideline.

Posted by: Lydia on April 14, 2003 06:43 PM

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The article is improperly titled. I expected to read a dyslexic perspective on electronic content accessibility. Instead, I get an article about dyslexic perspective on web content accessibility. What a let down!

Posted by: Pip the Pepperoni Protagonist on April 15, 2003 12:52 AM

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I thought we were supposed to have black text on white for better contrast and readability. I try to get away from that for things like menus (see my site), but black on white is my standard. My questions are: how many people have problems with the above and is it something that I should take into consideration? If so, what should I do about it? Are there those who require high contrast and what number?

Posted by: Morris Cox on April 15, 2003 03:38 AM

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Why not just offer viewers a choice by supplying alternate style sheets and a style sheet switcher? I'm starting to see a few "make the text larger" buttons, and one or two "change the background" options on pages a la Eric Meyer's stuff.

Posted by: JK on April 15, 2003 06:18 AM

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Morris, I'm light sensitive (which I think nowadays is called "photo sensitive") so certain types of light bother me where most people feel quite comfortable. Reading on the computer is a challenge when the background is white to start with. Even gray text on white (supposedly adhering to the 70% differential guideline) is hard for me to read. It helps if there are solid color blocks on the page to "seep away" some of the shimmer effect, but what helps the most is a light, matte background behind black text. Eliminating the "shimmer" or halo effect is the goal.

(I don't know if I'm describing "shimmer" correctly, but if you've ever had a migrane headache and you get that strange shimmery effect at the periphery of your vision just when it's about to kick into some real pain, you'll know what I mean. Totally white backgrounds do that all over the page for me, but especially around type and form elements.)

While this is not a very usability-oriented reference, consider http://www.k10k.org - look at the areas where they have text on a white background, but it is surrounded by other color. Easier to read. Then, look at areas where they have black/dark text on a light, matte background - also pleasing. Areas where they have gray text on a matte background are harder to read. Basically, there is no shimmer on this page for me. I could spend all day here. Well, if I had a magnifying glass.

Posted by: Lydia on April 15, 2003 01:16 PM

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Try using #EEEEEE instead of #FFFFFF for background colour. It reduces the glare a lot.

Morris, technically you're correct - black on white is best. However, the white in magazines and print publications is quite different from the white on your monitor. The problem with monitor white on PCs is the glare. It's too damn bright. On Macs, it looks great. That starts to burn your eyes after a while.

Lydia, do you have an email address? I wanted to mail you something. I'm webguru AT vsnl DOT net.

Posted by: MadMan on April 15, 2003 06:39 PM

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JK, I consider myself relatively skilled at CSS, but don't know how to do that yet. I'll have to hunt around for that. I think I have seen it before.

Lydia, I really do try to code my pages so that the most people get the most benefit. However, sometimes I wonder if there's a limit. Current technology (or rather the shambles the browsers have made) makes a battlefield of making webpages. XHTML compliance really helps, but getting people to upgrade their browsers is a never ending battle. It would be nice to have a browser that would take XHTML or XML and automatically present it in the most accessible way that would currently be of benefit to you. Right now, you need to create a CSS file and have your browser use it. If I knew diddly squat about programming, I might attempt it.

Madman, I made the change. How does it look?

Posted by: Morris Cox on April 19, 2003 01:32 AM

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