Making fonts more accessible to blind/low-vision users

[brightuw]

What's the problem?

We want to design a solution that makes font attributes (such as typeface, styling, and the impression they create), more accessible for blind or low-vision (BLV) users. This will enable BLV users to fully appreciate and utilize the nuances of fonts and typography, which are currently not well conveyed through existing technologies.

What's the design idea?

The usage of current technologies like text-to-speech and stakeholder wants (seeking primary research from BLV users via CREATE Lab on how to communicate the invisible aspects of font rendering effectively)

Who benefits?

Users who are blind or have low vision.

Design specification

Design specs will be added after further research through literature review and with CREATE Lab.

[amyjko]

Hi @brightuw! It's the end of the quarter, so please post an update on this issue. Things to consider:

• Should you still be the assignee? (If you're planning on working on it, yes! Submit a comment explaining your plans. If not, then unassign yourself, so others are eligible to grab it).
• Do you have any work products that are hosted outside of GitHub? Embed them in this issue, so others can build off of them.
• Are there any branches associated with this issue? Please link to them in the issue.

If there's nothing to change above, then at least post a comment indicating that you've seen this. Thanks!

[amyjko]

No reply, unassigning.

[maansi-s]

I want to work on this issue to research possible ways to improve font accessibility, and design a possible solution. Some focus points would be color contrast, font type, etc.

[devanshidesai25]

We are planning to focus on color contrast, font boldness and size mostly. We are currently going to do research on some common pain points with the current design, and then come up with a proposal for a redesign.

[Ethanwang17]

I want to make sure that WordPlay is more accessible to those who have vision impairments. We are researching and working on solutions that would make it easier for visually impaired people to use the website.

[amyjko]

Wonderful, it's great to see a solid team on this one! There's a lot of interesting design work to do in this space; I'm excited to see what you come up with.

[aakashbaheti]

Hi everyone! Has anyone heard back from the CREATE Lab regarding primary research from BLV?

[MichelleGuan1128]

Not yet. Still waiting for their response.

On Wed, Feb 7, 2024 at 5:48 PM aakashbaheti @.***> wrote:

Hi everyone! Has anyone heard back from the CREATE Lab regarding primary research from BLV?

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/wordplaydev/wordplay/issues/298*issuecomment-1933238532__;Iw!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!nwo8D9KE7NqYhRKgL9pxA00X7Re6WXOkeVQr6yrcJdt-DplHR3QR9hC02gyPIK23_aXw81KF_GED3GlrRbFwCtc$, or unsubscribe https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASK6ZXBNSEE3UYBL27TBFELYSQVFTAVCNFSM6AAAAAA76WR67SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSMZTGIZTQNJTGI__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!nwo8D9KE7NqYhRKgL9pxA00X7Re6WXOkeVQr6yrcJdt-DplHR3QR9hC02gyPIK23_aXw81KF_GED3GlradiWtB0$ . You are receiving this because you were assigned.Message ID: @.***>

[amyjko]

It's the end of Winter! Please provide an update on this issue, including:

• Whether you plan to continue work on it
• If you do not, 1) provide a detailed update of its status, 2) add any unfinished work, 3) list any any unmerged branches, and 4) unassign yourself, so someone else can take over the task. Please leave the issue in better shape than you found it, helping future contributors to start from where you left off.

If you do plan to continue work on it, carry on. Otherwise, thank you for your contributions!

[aakashbaheti]

Here is the work I have from Winter Quarter: Adobe Photoshop uses Color Universal Design which could be implemented in Wordplay: “Adobe® Photoshop® CC software offers support for simulating color blindness. According to Adobe, “Users can proof images with Color Universal Design (CUD) to ensure that graphical information is conveyed accurately to people with various types of color vision impairment, including people with color blindness.” http://colorsafe.co/ - In standard with WCAG 2.2 Guidelines Adobe Photoshop also uses manual font size adjustment which could also be implemented in Wordplay: “By providing users a clear option, whether it’s a slider, a drop-down, a button — anything — to alter the font size, brands and businesses (especially those with content-heavy websites) become friendlier to visually impaired users.” Colorblind users wouldn't be able to see if a blue text which is often seen as a hyperlink. Thus, communicating these type of situations by underlining hyperlinks for example would beneficial. For buttons or clicking certain items, rather than having text, use symbols and logos which may be easier to visualize for BLV users Contrast of colors and textures in align with WCAG 2.2 Guidelines: Test colors to make sure they have the proper contrast ratio for readability, using tools such as the Stark plugin for Sketch. Tools such as this one test combinations of text color on background color, and also take text size into consideration. For example, WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (i.e., 14 point and bold or larger, or 18 point or larger). Color contrast checkers typically check for compliance with this standard, so it might be a good idea to bookmark the standards and guidelines WCAG has laid out. https://fuzzymath.com/blog/improve-accessibility-for-visually-impaired-users/#:~:text=Adobe%C2%AE%20Photoshop%C2%AE%20CC,including%20people%20with%20color%20blindness.%E2%80%9D

Hope this helps!

[amyjko]

@aakashbaheti, you didn't say whether you're continuing on this issue, and no one else has replied, indicating their commitments. Unassigning everyone. Reassign yourself if you plan to continue the work.

[Kdial17]

i'd like to work on this issue

[amyjko]

Exciting, we're glad to have you on this @Kdial17! Read through the history, and let me know if you want any design guidance on this. Questions are good.

[Kdial17]

I learned that WCAG already has guidelines relating to font accessibility such as: 1.4.8 - Visual Presentation: This criterion ensures that blocks of text are presented in a way that improves readability. This covers paragraph and line spacing, text resizing, color choices, and paragraph alignments. This would be great to reference when coming up with questions for research and design purposes.

There was no previous record of questions they sent out to the CREATE lab prior to my assignment so I started looking into how I could best continue this research process referring back to INFO 300 concepts.

Working research questions and approach methods: Tentative approach: an interview with maybe 10 people?

• What are some challenges that blind/low-vision users face when interacting with text on digital platforms?
• How do these challenges vary across different devices (e.g., desktop, mobile, tablets)?
• How does the utilization of creative fonts further complicate or mitigate these challenges?
• How effective are current text-to-speech technologies in aiding BLV users?
• What are some limitations of existing screen readers and magnifiers regarding font accessibility?
• Any changes you’d like to see be made to help mitigate some of these limitations?
• What additional features could be implemented to enhance text interaction for BLV users (e.g., audio feedback, haptic feedback)?

[amyjko]

Thanks @Kdial17; that is correctly, the previous contributors did not follow through on their research, or reply to my request for an update. Either they didn't do any work, or they didn't share it.

This issue's scope is vague. If I remember correctly, the actual issue was ensuring that 1) what font something is rendered in, 2) how it is styled, and 3) what impression it creates are discoverable to creators who are blind and cannot see these aspects of rendered font faces. This scope should be clearer in the problem description; can you edit to clarify this?

If we were to ask blind users about these questions, your brainstormed questions are a good start. We'd likely want to focus more on this invisible font information though, rather than broadly about text-to-speech support. There's decades of research on that; it just doesn't teach us much about font information in particular.

[Kdial17]

ooh okay that makes more sense, thanks for the clarification! i've also gone ahead and updated the problem space to include these details

[amyjko]

@Kdial17 Can you provide an update on your plans here? Will you be continuing work on this, or are you stopping? Please communicate your status so that everyone knows, and unassign yourself if you are stopping work.