Some blogs are ugly, but many need better accessibility
Some blogs are ugly. Fact. But there's nothing wrong with that!
Our blogs are forms of expression, from the text to the appearance. Sometimes, some aren't so… aesthetically pleasing?
I say this, but even the "ugly" ones have their charm. You can see the person's personality shining through in the cracks of blogs with background colors that burn the eyes and illegible fonts.
Having expressed my opinions here, I also want to make it clear that I would never tell anyone to their face that their blog is ugly. That would be just mean. Unless it's something professional or for public use (an NGO or government website), aesthetics are part of the experience.
But I think we need to have a conversation about accessibility.
I have difficulty keeping my mind focused on reading. I often jump from word to word, stumble along the way, and have to go back to the beginning of the sentence. I don't have a diagnosis, so I'm not going to assume anything. But I know I have some degree of difficulty maintaining attention, and more than one person has asked me if I have ADHD (this is one of the possibilities I most want to explore when I start going to a psychologist).
Some blogs have such strong background colors that they hurt my eyes, others have images so full of elements that they blend into the text. Sometimes it's a matter of contrast, a background color almost the same shade as the text that becomes blurry.
Once I messaged a blogger who had very interesting posts, but which I gave up on the texts halfway through. The blog had too many elements at all times, too much information, my brain couldn't keep up. The background had elements almost the same color as the text, the font was funny, but it didn't help either, and there were many GIFs moving around and through the text.
I left a comment saying that I loved the texts, but that it was difficult to read with so much happening at the same time. Comments had to be approved to appear in the post, and I think mine never was, but he reduced the use of GIFs, if I'm not mistaken.
Other blogs have a very large text area and tiny font. I often read on the computer, usually at night. And the sentences drag on the screen so much that they end up looking more like lines than blocks of text.So I make an appeal.
Please try to think about your readers. I know that not everyone is really writing to be seen, but it doesn't hurt to format and program your blog in an accessible way.
I’ll leave some websites I found to help check the contrast between the colors of your blog here and here.
Another thing I recommend is having a background image with few elements, or a solid color behind the text (or at least with little transparency). In addition to maintaining the space where the text is and using reasonably sized fonts. A body of text doesn't need to occupy 70% of the computer screen.
I understand the appeal of fun fonts, but this can affect people with attention disorder or some kind of reading difficulty. If possible, look for fonts that are friendly to people with dyslexia. And, again, font size is important. I've seen blogs with excessively large fonts and others with sand-like shapes instead of letters.
Taking this opportunity to ask that you please add ALT text to your images. Most of the time, photos/memes can be described with a sentence or two. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes and greatly helps people who will hear your text instead of reading it.
I ended up talking more than I planned. But that's it. I don't control anyone's life, but it would be nice to have more legible texts. I should add that I didn't write this post with any specific blog in mind. Please don't feel personally attacked.I hope I haven't said anything stupid and that I may have helped or opened someone's eyes.
Thanks for reading!
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