Here’s is my crude but effective, rule for evaluating readability:

All important Information should be easily readable at a TWICE the expected viewing distance by a person with “normal” (20/20) vision.

At least! Clearer is, of course, better. I personally simply take off my glasses at normal distance. 8-)

This does not accommodate those who would be consider “visually impaired.” This is for “universal design” principles. To accommodate the truly visually impaired you need to consider magnification, audio description/readers, and braille.

Asssuming that your visitors will hold an iPad about 1.5ft away, then everything should be easily readable at twice this distance, or 3ft. It does not actually need to be on the iPad to test. Any similar brightness screen will do. Just make your image the correct absolute visual size on the test screen.

This strategy requires visual feedback testing, and you need a target size and viewing distance, but frankly not this, you are shooting in the dark anyway. You must anticipate viewer behavior to implement accessibility.

Images should be evaluated on displays similar to the target display. For instance, if you are designing for print, you can’t evaluate on an LCD screen. You have to print it at the correct size. 

If you want to account for color blindness, convert your images to black and white before evaluating. 

I usually ask for opinions from multiple individuals to help average out variations in vision since focus is not the only difference between viewers.

BTW, I did not just pull this out of my butt. ;) This is a simple, real world test for the complex and abstract guidelines laid out in WWW3 and elsewhere. To put it simply, a person with 20/20 vision standing at twice the expected distance is seeing what a person with 20/40 vision would see at the target distance. In the real world 20/40 (corrected) vision is the norm, not 20/20.

Cheers,
                  tod


Tod Hopkins
Hillmann & Carr Inc.
2233 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20007
202-342-0001



On Apr 5, 2018, at 10:00 PM, Ilana Short <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Thank you Jan! That looks like a great resource!

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 5, 2018, at 5:16 PM, Janice Majewski <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Ilana and Laura,

Even though the ADA does not have spelled-out standards for digital interactives and virtual exhibits as it does for physical environments, it does require effective communication and equal access to programs. A lot of museums are experimenting with ways to meet these requirements with the ever-changing technology, but there are no standards specific to museum applications.  However, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA is the best place to start. https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag  These are currently voluntary guidelines (the Department of Justice's web regulations are on hold) that apply to the web, mobile apps, and authoring tools and offer guidelines on color, contrast, making digital materials screen readable (for people who use software that reads out the text and alt text) and keyboard/keypad operable, captioning, and much more.  It's great that you're thinking about this at the beginning of your project.  If you let accessible/inclusive design concerns drive your design from the beginning, you'll end up with programs that serve everyone better.

Good luck!
Jan 

Janice Majewski
Director, Inclusive Cultural and Educational Projects
Institute for Human Centered Design

617-695-1225 x 301


On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 7:38 PM, Frick, Laura <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Ilana,

I would be very interested to hear any/all replies to this! 

Thanks, 
Laura 

On Thu, Apr 5, 2018, 6:31 PM Ilana Short <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello,

Has anyone worked with creating virtual exhibits for iPads and other tablet technology? I'm familiar with ADA guidelines for physical exhibits, but I am curious if there is anything published for virtual ones, such as font restrictions, color schemes, etc.

Thank you for any feedback!

Ilana Short
Manager of Photography Collections
Manager of Communication and Outreach
Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas

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Janice Majewski
Director, Inclusive Cultural and Educational Projects
Institute for Human Centered Design

617-695-1225 x 301
571-245-4403 (cell)  

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