Google Earth is a profoundly visual program. It is fun to watch the program zoom in and out, moving around the planet with breathtaking visual effect. It is useful to learn about the geography, both topographic and human, of particular locations. In the end, Google Earth is fundamentally visual, so why would it be useful to the blind? For the profoundly blind, the interface would need to be rethought completely using tactile and auditory interfaces. But, for the partially sighted, Google Earth is that magic atlas I always wished for growing up. To be able to zoom in and out lets me see the fine detail that I never could in a book. Maps have always frustrated me. I never have the necessary magnification with me to read street names or route numbers. With Google Earth, I can map out and familiarize myself with routes and neighborhoods.

Earth’s programmers, up to now, have left accessibility off the list of priorities. Text size was tiny and the color scheme had lots of low contrast blue-on-white. In the latest version of Earth, Google has made one concession, larger font sizes. The color and font schemes are not adjustable, but the default font size is no longer microsopic.

Google Earth (click to view large)

As you can see here, the text is reasonably legible. I asked Earth for directions from an old neighborhood of mine to downtown Chapel Hill. Each turn is clearly and legibly marked out. The text on the map is very helpfully outlined in black to ensure contrast. All-in-all, this one step is a big improvement. Next, Google needs to make the font and color schemes personalizable. At leat there ought to be a large font, high contrast option.

Tags: accessibility, color scheme, earth, font, font sizes, google, magnification, size, text, zoom

This entry was posted on February 3, 2009 at 3:28 pm and is filed under large print. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.