Website Management: Considering Users with Reduced Vision

Many of us know firsthand that middle-age can bring changes that weaken vision. Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment according to the WHO. A vision impairment is the partial loss of vision, and it can come with any age whether permanent or temporary.

People with reduced vision might have difficulty reading small text on a website while trying to find information. Web browser zoom options can be helpful on most sites, but sometimes users will encounter problems where text and page elements do not reflow at bigger sizes. This causes a horizontal scroll bar to appear and forces the reader to scroll from side to side to read the enlarged content. Users might lose their place and stop browsing when they experience this. 

See the images below for examples of the ideal zoom experience. When the browser’s zoom settings are used to go over 100% (ctrl and +), the top search bar elements are no longer side by side. Instead, they are now underneath each other to maintain the natural flow of scrolling down on the page. The search bar is reorganized into three different components to keep all elements visual without the need to scroll right or left to find information. Even at 500%, there should be no horizontal scroll bar. The elements are fluid instead of fixed. An experience like this improves usability for a large population and will increase site usage.

Serve all users, even if they don’t have perfect vision, with a responsive website that works well on any device. Stacks, library website content management system (CMS), is a hosted subscription service that supports page reflow and all accessibility guidelines with continuous improvement for the life of the contract. This enables your libraries to focus on curating content and providing services instead of battling technology. Prevent horizontal scrolling, which increases effort for low vision users to effectively support all your website visitors.