[WEB4LIB] Re: Tupperware's Senior Friendly/Shrink Text magnifying

[K.G. Schneider]

> Some users may not be aware that they have the power to change font
> sizes.  But if you show them once (it's usually in the "View" menu of
> the browser), then they will have font-size control of every site they
> visit, not just your library's site.
> 
> -Keith

I'm not disagreeing with any of you on the value of relative units of size
(said she who spent part of the holiday testing stylesheets that did just
that). What I am wondering is, assuming if you are using relative units, it
is bad or wrong (or simply impossible) to implement the text-sizing tool
anyway, on the assumption that people are going to use it because the
instructions are on the page, and not hidden in pull-down menus in the
browser. Most of us aren't perched on our users' shoulders, and "showing
them once" is not gonna happen. That doesn't answer the question of how you
teach someone to resize EVERY page, but it does make it possible for users
to view YOUR page more easily. Even if your page is sized for a reasonably
mature audience, plenty of people may want to blow it up anyway. 

Do we have data available that most or even many users do know how to resize
their pages? Particularly "seniors," as those Tupperware folk put it? 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com