Please take another look and see what you think of the new theme I installed. It’s the only theme in the default Wordpress arsenal that cites high contrast and accessibility.
I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the text color in and of itself. Sorry, i’m not a web dev :)
This text is much more readable. The layout of the site has lost a bit of ‘style’ and your header graphic is the same as the article graphic now which looks like a bug, but if you’re going for accessibility this is a bit better.
I guess digging through Wordpress theme CSS is not much fun, but your original theme just with a tweaked font colour would have been fine too ;)
(And nothing against Wordpress here, use it when I have certain kinds of projects that need to get deployed v. fast and with certain kinds of user constraints)
Digging through the CSS isn’t an option for me. I’m a System Development Engineer with Amazon Web Services. I mean, I know enough CSS to set a background and maybe change some spacing in HTML, but I haven’t the foggiest about how to dig in and modify a particular CSS attribute in Wordpress.
I’ll play with the theme more, I’d bet dollars for donuts that there’s a way to get the header graphic for my blog back, but accessibility is super important to me, so if I can’t with the time I have available then that’s a price I’m happy to pay.
Ah. Interesting. In point of fact I CAN’T modify the CSS myself. To do that I’d need to go from paying wordpress.com $100 a year to $200 a year. Not gonna happen :)
I have a dreamhost account which I use for their free unlimited Wordpress hosting, because it’s generally zero hassle and is a ‘proper’ full Wordpress install. Happy to host your WP there if it’s any use, with couple of caveats.
I’m partially blind so I’m super sensitive to this. Thanks for letting me know, I will choose a different theme post haste.
If you can manage to refrain from taking the usual dump on Wordpress (It’s what I use and like. Please deal appropriately :) do you have any suggestions on higher contrast themes you like? Or even other Wordpress blogs you find more readable?
I’m gonna confess to using wordpress.com so I pretty much only use themes they provide by default, but thanks for the pointer. If I get time and if I can install random themes I’ll definitely look into it!
The meat of the article resonated with me a lot. You’ve reached conclusions which overlap with some of my own I’ve recently discovered. I’m going to explore further the passion side of your recommendations, I’ve certainly seen a few cases where it’s been a liability recently.
Thank you very much! Reading Avdi’s articles a couple years back really hit a nerve, and I’ve found since that my “passion” had been the source of more than a few problems over the course of my career.
@feoh why the heck is your blog grey on white? I’d love to read this but even after I increase the text size twice it’s still hard on my eyes.
Contrast Rebellion - to hell with unreadable, low-contrast texts!
Please take another look and see what you think of the new theme I installed. It’s the only theme in the default Wordpress arsenal that cites high contrast and accessibility.
I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the text color in and of itself. Sorry, i’m not a web dev :)
As a reader I thank you very much for taking into account the remarks.
I really enjoyed the article, I’m still a junior in sysadm/ops and I hope I will Learn as much as you do!
Welcome to the fold! It’s an incredible career path and I love my job to bits and am regularly excited to get up and go to work in the morning :)
This text is much more readable. The layout of the site has lost a bit of ‘style’ and your header graphic is the same as the article graphic now which looks like a bug, but if you’re going for accessibility this is a bit better.
I guess digging through Wordpress theme CSS is not much fun, but your original theme just with a tweaked font colour would have been fine too ;)
(And nothing against Wordpress here, use it when I have certain kinds of projects that need to get deployed v. fast and with certain kinds of user constraints)
Digging through the CSS isn’t an option for me. I’m a System Development Engineer with Amazon Web Services. I mean, I know enough CSS to set a background and maybe change some spacing in HTML, but I haven’t the foggiest about how to dig in and modify a particular CSS attribute in Wordpress.
I’ll play with the theme more, I’d bet dollars for donuts that there’s a way to get the header graphic for my blog back, but accessibility is super important to me, so if I can’t with the time I have available then that’s a price I’m happy to pay.
Thanks again for the report.
Ah. Interesting. In point of fact I CAN’T modify the CSS myself. To do that I’d need to go from paying wordpress.com $100 a year to $200 a year. Not gonna happen :)
I have a dreamhost account which I use for their free unlimited Wordpress hosting, because it’s generally zero hassle and is a ‘proper’ full Wordpress install. Happy to host your WP there if it’s any use, with couple of caveats.
I’m partially blind so I’m super sensitive to this. Thanks for letting me know, I will choose a different theme post haste.
If you can manage to refrain from taking the usual dump on Wordpress (It’s what I use and like. Please deal appropriately :) do you have any suggestions on higher contrast themes you like? Or even other Wordpress blogs you find more readable?
I like almost all of Anders Noren’s themes: http://www.andersnoren.se/teman/
The code quality is better than the average WordPress theme, and every one of those looks clean and readable (to me at least).
I’m gonna confess to using wordpress.com so I pretty much only use themes they provide by default, but thanks for the pointer. If I get time and if I can install random themes I’ll definitely look into it!
So, thank you all for the accessibility feedback, it has been enlightening.
That said, does anyone have anything to say about the meat of the article? (Thank you for reading it BTW for those that did.)
Am I full of crap? Has this been said more eloquently elsewhere? Is this useful to anyone?
Thanks.
The meat of the article resonated with me a lot. You’ve reached conclusions which overlap with some of my own I’ve recently discovered. I’m going to explore further the passion side of your recommendations, I’ve certainly seen a few cases where it’s been a liability recently.
Thank you very much! Reading Avdi’s articles a couple years back really hit a nerve, and I’ve found since that my “passion” had been the source of more than a few problems over the course of my career.
The original link is dead, available from https://www.feoh.org/hacking-the-wetware.html