Santa Is A Silver Surfer
Much of the primary focus of accessible web design is often on relatively young users with clearly defined medical conditions such as little or no vision or an inability to use their hands. But what about the older population — many of whom have progressively deteriorating abilities?
At this time of year, we’re surrounded by pictures of a rather jolly man dressed in red. Take a closer look. See the white hair? The facial wrinkles? Yes - Santa’s a silver surfer. So what kind of problems might he face?
Our first indication that Santa might have some web surfing problems are the spectacles he sometimes wears. He’s also a little vain as he doesn’t wear them all the time. Or perhaps he just needs them for reading? Either way, it’s more than likely that he won’t be wearing them at the very moment he’s trying to sort out an online order for reindeer food. At this point, he might want to increase the text size in his web browser but, if the font size has been set in pixels instead of % or ems, Rudolph may end up with having to make do with Standard Lichen rather than the Premium brand he’s more used to [1]. If this results in a nose that isn’t quite so red, don’t say I didn’t warn you!