Claudia: partially sighted screen magnifier user
Published 25 October 2017
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My screen magnifier has made it possible for me to use the web again. I just wish more companies kept their websites simple.
Claudia is 54 and lives in Huddersfield with her husband Len and daughter Dana who is 12. Her other two children are away at university.
Claudia is partially sighted due to glaucoma and diabetes.
She works part time as a social worker with Kirklees Council. She used to visit people in their homes, but lost her confidence as her sight got worse. Now she바카라 사이트™s based in the office, and she바카라 사이트™s hoping to start training and mentoring new social workers.
Devices and technology
Claudia바카라 사이트™s setup at work includes ZoomText (software that lets you magnify what바카라 사이트™s on screen), a large monitor and a high visibility keyboard. She has a similar setup at home.
She recently got a Kindle Fire for reading - she has tried its screen reader function, but she prefers to use the magnification to read herself or use audiobooks.
Claudia prefers phone calls to emails and never sends text messages. She uses the 바카라 사이트˜speech to text바카라 사이트™ feature on her smartphone, which records a message and sends it to the person she바카라 사이트™s contacting.
Goals and wishes
Claudia wants to be able to phone any company she needs to contact - it바카라 사이트™s so much quicker and easier for her to call than to write.
She also wishes there was less clutter on some websites - she just wants to get on with what she바카라 사이트™s doing.
Frustrations
Claudia tends to forget to scroll horizontally when she바카라 사이트™s using ZoomText. When she바카라 사이트™s filling in a form, she sometimes misses fields or help text when they바카라 사이트™re next to each other (rather than above and below each other).
She hates it when she바카라 사이트™s using ZoomText and a pop-up box appears off screen. She then needs to scroll to find and close the pop-up.
It바카라 사이트™s confusing if the layout of a form isn바카라 사이트™t consistent - for example, if she바카라 사이트™s been magnifying a certain part of the screen to complete a form, but then that part is blank on the next page.
Sometimes it바카라 사이트™s hard for Claudia to see web content clearly when she borrows her husband바카라 사이트™s tablet, if the colour contrast isn바카라 사이트™t good.
Making things better for Claudia
| What to do | Further reading |
|---|---|
| Follow best practice for accessible form design - for example, leave enough space between fields, and position field labels directly above the fields they relate to. | for user interfaces, part of the 바카라 사이트 Design System. |
| Make your layout consistent and predictable. For example, make sure the position of things like 바카라 사이트˜Next바카라 사이트™ and 바카라 사이트˜Back바카라 사이트™ buttons is consistent. | , WCAG 2.0 guideline. |
| Do user research with people who use screen magnification software. | User research for government services: an introduction, guidance on 바카라 사이트. |
| Use a colour contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 between text and its background. |
, on the GDS Accessibility blog. . |
| Use responsive design and avoid publishing to PDFs (which you can바카라 사이트™t customise or zoom). | , post on the GDS Accessibility blog. |
More reading
You may find the following resources useful:
- 바카라 사이트˜Designing for users with low vision바카라 사이트™ is one of a set of posters designed by the Home Office. You can
- , blog post by The Practical Dev
- , article by axess labs
- , guidance by the BBC Accessibility team
Statistics about sight loss
About 2 million people in the UK have sight loss, and this figure is expected to double by 2050.
Individuals from black and Asian populations have a higher risk of diabetic eye disease and sight loss than white populations.
Less than one-third of people who were registered blind or partially sighted were offered training to help them get around in the year after they were registered.