It would probably take a competent someone a few hours to fix the readability issues of this site but they just never get around to it.

Edit:

Here's a link to what all comments look like for me, even if they're downvoted:

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/v5zcn9n4vg4m3cn/2014-06-1...

I also disabled scores and voting because I dislike that stuff.

This is the home page:

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/sicqor50smsl4hx/2014-06-1...

Pinch-to-zoom works fine on HackerNews on an iPad, and the HackerNews font is nothing unusual.

Regarding HN being too wide, why don't you narrow your browser window?

Personally, I like the fact the traditional web design in which HN adjusts the line to screen width rather than imposing a width.

Its just that it ruins the experience on mobile devices because you can't resize the window and zooming doesn't reflow the text.

for what it's worth, I don't really have a problem with it. They provide an API and there are like 90 billion ycombinator mobile apps to choose from which do a better job.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7883973

Narrow my browser window because this one site makes it difficult to read? I could do that, or I could just use a content script and leave my browser at the width I prefer. I maximize my browser for distraction free reading.

I may not be understanding it, because I just maximized the window and I don't see any issue, really.

Down voted comments are supposed to be hard for everyone to read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacspeak

StatCounter attempts to measure browsing volume, not people using a particular browser.

Net Applications attempts to measure people using a browser, so IE9's reported share is three times higher, around 9%.

As an analogy, take the toothpaste market with only two players. Lets say 30% of people use Colgate and 70% use Crest. But for some reason the first group uses more toothpaste, so 60% of toothpaste sold in the market is Colgate and 40% is Crest.

Now, which one has a higher "marketshare"? Crest or Colgate?

It's funny how everyone gets so confused about this.

Anyway, Net Applications is the more apt comparison here because she's attempting to compare people having a disability, not the amount of browsing done by such people.

Trick question.

I can't answer that question until I've decided whether I want to be a Crest fan or a Colgate fan. Sort of like how I can't decide whether to measure smartphone market size by units shipped or dollars spent without first deciding whether I want to promote Android or iOS.

Suppose that there was no technology to help blind people use computers. Then blind people would have 0% of browsing, but they're not 0% of the population -- should we create technology to help them even though they do no browsing? (Yes.)

> I'd like to start this post with a disclaimer: I don't know much about creating accessible websites.

Forcing programmers to jump through extra hoops (trying /em to learn on their own, and making well-intentioned changes but not knowing if its right or enough or effective) is not the way to increase knowledge and uptake of accessibility-minded-design as the standard.

It would be nice if designers were still able to make stylistic choices with regards to fonts and website colors, that may be less readable for some, but have it degrade easily to something more readable with a simple command or click of a button. Besides some roundabout ways i can think of, or using readability, im not sure how to do that easily though.

She's now raised the issue for a wider audience and this could only be hypocrisy if she held herself up as an example of how to do things correctly. She isn't, and says so right at the top of the article.

The article has horrible fonts.

    javascript:document.querySelector('meta[name=viewport]').setAttribute('content','width=200,initial-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=10.0,user-scalable=1');

I wouldn't consider this an impairment, but my eyesight is changing (it is getting harder for me to work on a screen when I'm wearing glasses). This font is very hard to read!!

another comparison would be like a professional driver admitting he knows nothing about hand brakes, writing an essay about why he knows nothing about them, how he can learn and be more knowledgeable about them...and then proceeding to drive 1,000 miles with the hand brake engaged.

i wouldn't expect her to learn or apply all of WAI-ARIA, but you'd think after doing so much research on the subject, she could change a simple font-family tag to help her case.