🔍ACCEPTED: Accessibility suggestion: Plain text toggle

[minecraft]

TLDR:
I am suggesting a setting you can switch on or off client side to remove text formatting such as text color, bold/italics and size.

Summary:
My suggestion is to add a toggle that would allow players to view trade rules and forum posts in plain text (normal size, default font color for whichever theme is being used, without bold/italics/etc).

Adding this feature would ensure those who struggle with small text sizing and cetain colors can read trade rules and forum replies in plain text.

This change would be client side, and wouldn't actually change anyone elses posts/rules from anyone elses perspective.
It could be a toggle per post, or an option in settings that can be switched on or off.


Why:
I'm suggesting this as due to migraines, my vision is sometimes pretty terrible!
If someone's trade rules or forum post uses small text or pastel colors, their message becomes near impossible for me to see- meaning I either don't trade, or I ignore someones trade rules- which I wouldn't want to do.
(As a small note, obviously the best thing to do with a migraine is rest- but I get so many that if I did that, I'd never do anything else!)

This feature would also be extremely useful for colorblind and dyslexic users- and anyone else who just don't like having to zoom in to read trade rules!


Explanation and examples:
I'm sure a lot of us have encountered trade rules written in very small text sizes, or using text colors that are strenious to read- and it's frustrating! When trading, I want to read a users rules quickly and easily to make them an offer they'll appreciate.
This is a small but potentially extremely beneficial feature for many CS players, not just those who get migraines!

For example, here's a set of rules I made based on a range of rules I've seen:

a fake set of cs trade rules, in a range of font sizes and colors

mockcsrules.png (11.08 KiB) Viewed 4868 times

And here's the same set of rules with the option to put them into plain text toggled:

the same set of fake cs trade rules, now all in the 'normal' text size and black color

mockcsrulesplain.png (15.31 KiB) Viewed 4868 times

One unfortunate downside:
It's unfortunate but worth noting that inaccessible custom fonts you may see around CS, such as ones that look like:
- 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼
- 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈
- 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤
- 🆃🅷🅸🆂
Cannot all be easily converted back into normal text for visually impaired CS players. As such, they aren't included in my suggestion to offer a plaintext option, and they would likely be skipped and remain inaccessible if this feature was added.

Many of these letters are actually math symbols, called mathematical alphanumeric symbols, and do not have a 1:1 identity with typical latin characters. These symbols exist in unicode for people and professionals doing complex math or sciences.

When these symbols are used for aesthetic reasons, they make text harder to read for users like myself with migraines, and for users with screen readers, they are skipped altogether. It would be incredibly complex to try and include converting these symbols into latin characters on CS, and isn't something other websites do either. It is worth noting that someone who requires a screen reader can still play and enjoy CS, as complete and total blindness is less common than other impairments that allow for some amount of vision.




In conclusion:

I hope I've explained clearly what I'd like to see here- other peoples forum posts and trade rules! After pushing for this for two years with this forum, next year I plan to keep bumping this post when I can to bring CS forward with core accessibility features that will make the community easier to interact with for disabled players.

Please reply if you've also struggled with this before- sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one?! Please refrain from screenshotting anyone else's posts as an example, though- singling out other people isn't constructive to the suggestion ^^

Thank you for checking out this post :3



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[Leek.dot]

Maybe try out high-contrast mode?

You can find it in settings-> Board preferences-> Display options

[minecraft]

Maybe try out high-contrast mode?

You can find it in settings-> Board preferences-> Display options

Thank you for replying! High contrast mode is super useful, but unfortunately doesn't modify trade rules- it'd be awesome if it did though!

[peachy!]

I've seen a bunch of posts/rules in extremely small fonts lately, and it's very hard to decipher. The smallest I use is 90, (example), but these posts must have been in 50 at the largest (example). I've also seen a lot of rainbow font, which is equally difficult to read.

I use 100% zoom and CS:Dull as well, but these things still manage to strain my eyes like no tomorrow. Full support for a toggle.

[Lullamoon]

Support!!
I’ve seen so many super super tiny and pastel posts- even with 20/20 I can’t read that! I’d like to note this problem is amplified on computer by like a ton. There’s been a few times I felt like I was reading actual pixels with my nose to the screen lol Don’t get me wrong, I looove when people put a ton of effort making a post/rules all fancy and pretty, but I also looove being able to see it.. I really like the idea of it being a per post or per trade rules little button/switch to be able to quickly press and read plainly while keeping other fancied up but readable posts fancy.

[Fluffle puffle]

This would be amazing, so many times I've just given up on trading for the day because trying to read someone's rules gave me a headache >.<

Also could be useful for colourblind users?

[minecraft]

Support!!
I’ve seen so many super super tiny and pastel posts- even with 20/20 I can’t read that! I’d like to note this problem is amplified on computer by like a ton. There’s been a few times I felt like I was reading actual pixels with my nose to the screen lol Don’t get me wrong, I looove when people put a ton of effort making a post/rules all fancy and pretty, but I also looove being able to see it.. I really like the idea of it being a per post or per trade rules little button/switch to be able to quickly press and read plainly while keeping other fancied up but readable posts fancy.

It's definitely a little easier to see tiny posts on mobile! I can really quickly put my magnifier on there- or hold my phone way up close to my face >_< !

On Flight Rising they offer this feature per forum post, and the icon is a little paint brush! (As they don't have trade rules the same way CS does I believe forums are the only place this option is shown)

a screenshot of flight risings font/text color toggle

frtoggle.png (24.05 KiB) Viewed 4826 times

It's not quite the same, but since it's another petsite I think it's worth mentioning! Thank you for your support :3

[Starfalling]

Support, although it would also be great to see an option to just/also enlarge text to a chosen size (the default text size is often still too small for me, and being zoomed in all the time is hard because signatures and dressups get distorted, not to mention scrolling side to side in things like the archive)

[felidthing]

this would be such an improvement, there are so many times i open a thread and get blasted with huge multicolor text and just click off because i dont wanna take the time to figure out whats actually important info (im aware people color code things for their own accessibility too! it just doesnt mesh well with my own needs).

[pomni]

Huge agree, sometimes I just don't read the rules cause it's not worth the eyestrain the tiny/pastel font text is gonna cause me and if I skipped every person that used a font too small for me to read comfortably I'd just never be able to trade anyone