6 ms·

dang - are there any features for making HN more accessible? A vision-impaired colleague of mine wanted to check out HN today and made me aware that the contras

dang - are there any features for making HN more accessible? A vision-impaired colleague of mine wanted to check out HN today and made me aware that the contrasts on HN make it really hard for people with impaired vision to read on HN (webaim.org confirms this: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=919191&bcolor=F6F6F0 https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=919191&...). Using his screen reader (NVDA) didn't help much as the front page doesn't seem to take into account screen reading software. Has someone built a more accessible version of HN? Also, does the HN team plan to make HN more accessible in the future?

dang 5y ago
It's a problem and yes we plan to fix it. I'm sorry it hasn't been fixed yet; we're just slow at things. Hopefully HN will be around for long enough to justify how slow we are.
- JulianRaphael 5y ago
  That's great news and thanks for the swift reply. Have you considered asking the HN community for help with this issue? I'm sure there would be lots of volunteers.
  - dang 5y ago
    I will when we actually get to work on it. Before that, it would be counterproductive—just having to process the inputs would cause further delay.
- ramses0 5y ago
  Markdown? Markdown-ish? Something better than the foot-gun of markup currently supported?
  - function_seven 5y ago
    My wish list is not full Markdown support, but a little more than is currently implemented: 1. Ordered lists - Unordered lists Inline `code snippets` Super^script That's it. I totally get why HN wouldn't want tables, bold headers, etc. There's a danger of comments getting visually "noisy" with these. But for referencing code or mathematical concepts, or just listing things, the 4 things above would be really handy.
    - ramses0 5y ago
      Yup... Lists, `inline`, and ```code``` would be fantastic. It's so annoying for n.yc to be literally the only place on the internet where you can type into a textbox but that textbox isn't some variation of markdown. (even facebook messages [on web] supports triple-ticks for code!)
      - lights0123 5y ago
        > literally the only place on the internet Haven't worked with forum software other than Discourse, have you? They all still use BBCode.
        ramses0 5y ago
        True, but it's such a mismatch in expectations where the entire tech industry has embraced markdown, but n.yc (tech mecca / water cooler) is most decidedly (and surprisingly) uses NotMarkdown(tm).
        Spooky23 5y ago
        HN is an institution. The tech industry should be ashamed that they have HN modes.
        charrondev 5y ago
        I work at Vanilla Forums (we power some of the largest communities online). I’ve worked a lot on our editors and content formatting pipelines. We support plaintext, markdown, HTML, BBCode, and a WYSIWYG editor with markdown shortcuts. In reality is estimate the distribution is mostly the WYSIWYG editor nowadays for newer sites and BBCode for the older ones (some users on older entrenched communities really like their BBCode I guess).
greggturkington 5y ago
I've written an accessible skin for HN that's about 90% complete. It targets WCAG 2.0. I will post it here when it's released. The text is mostly illegible, but there are LOTS of other issues too, tap target sizing for example.
- dang 5y ago
  Please email hn@ycombinator.com when you do post it!
- gmfawcett 5y ago
  > I've written an accessible skin for HN... The text is mostly illegible... I guess everyone has to start somewhere? :P
DoreenMichele 5y ago
I'm co-owner of a small Google Group for blind developers started on HN. The other co-owner is a blind developer. Presumably, he's able to navigate HN since that's how we met. I'm visually impaired but not blind. I have no problems navigating HN. You are welcome to join the group and ask how other members navigate HN. Most of them joined via links found on HN. https://groups.google.com/g/blind-dev-works https://groups.google.com/g/blind-dev-works
- gostsamo 5y ago
  The fact that I can navigate HN does not mean that it is pleasurable. The front page makes cumbersome to navigate down the list of publications and the comments sections do not signal where a thread starts or ends and who is answering to whom. Skipping boring threads therefore becomes practically impossible unless I find the top comment and know the uncommunicated feature to collapse threads.
seumars 5y ago
(Greyed out comments are not a bug but a feature)
- saagarjha 5y ago
  Perhaps, but not everyone may want to enable this particular feature…
  - codyb 5y ago
    You can turn it off by enabling “show dead”.
    - Sebb767 5y ago
      That will show dead comments, but near-dead ones are still grey. In fact, dead ones are gray too, so you effectively increase the amount of gray comments ;)

dang 5y ago

It's a problem and yes we plan to fix it. I'm sorry it hasn't been fixed yet; we're just slow at things. Hopefully HN will be around for long enough to justify how slow we are.

JulianRaphael 5y ago
That's great news and thanks for the swift reply. Have you considered asking the HN community for help with this issue? I'm sure there would be lots of volunteers.
- dang 5y ago
  I will when we actually get to work on it. Before that, it would be counterproductive—just having to process the inputs would cause further delay.
ramses0 5y ago
Markdown? Markdown-ish? Something better than the foot-gun of markup currently supported?
- function_seven 5y ago
  My wish list is not full Markdown support, but a little more than is currently implemented: 1. Ordered lists - Unordered lists Inline `code snippets` Super^script That's it. I totally get why HN wouldn't want tables, bold headers, etc. There's a danger of comments getting visually "noisy" with these. But for referencing code or mathematical concepts, or just listing things, the 4 things above would be really handy.
  - ramses0 5y ago
    Yup... Lists, `inline`, and ```code``` would be fantastic. It's so annoying for n.yc to be literally the only place on the internet where you can type into a textbox but that textbox isn't some variation of markdown. (even facebook messages [on web] supports triple-ticks for code!)
    - lights0123 5y ago
      > literally the only place on the internet Haven't worked with forum software other than Discourse, have you? They all still use BBCode.
      - ramses0 5y ago
        True, but it's such a mismatch in expectations where the entire tech industry has embraced markdown, but n.yc (tech mecca / water cooler) is most decidedly (and surprisingly) uses NotMarkdown(tm).
        Spooky23 5y ago
        HN is an institution. The tech industry should be ashamed that they have HN modes.
      - charrondev 5y ago
        I work at Vanilla Forums (we power some of the largest communities online). I’ve worked a lot on our editors and content formatting pipelines. We support plaintext, markdown, HTML, BBCode, and a WYSIWYG editor with markdown shortcuts. In reality is estimate the distribution is mostly the WYSIWYG editor nowadays for newer sites and BBCode for the older ones (some users on older entrenched communities really like their BBCode I guess).

greggturkington 5y ago

I've written an accessible skin for HN that's about 90% complete. It targets WCAG 2.0. I will post it here when it's released. The text is mostly illegible, but there are LOTS of other issues too, tap target sizing for example.

dang 5y ago
Please email hn@ycombinator.com when you do post it!
gmfawcett 5y ago
> I've written an accessible skin for HN... The text is mostly illegible... I guess everyone has to start somewhere? :P

DoreenMichele 5y ago

I'm co-owner of a small Google Group for blind developers started on HN. The other co-owner is a blind developer. Presumably, he's able to navigate HN since that's how we met. I'm visually impaired but not blind. I have no problems navigating HN. You are welcome to join the group and ask how other members navigate HN. Most of them joined via links found on HN. https://groups.google.com/g/blind-dev-works https://groups.google.com/g/blind-dev-works

gostsamo 5y ago
The fact that I can navigate HN does not mean that it is pleasurable. The front page makes cumbersome to navigate down the list of publications and the comments sections do not signal where a thread starts or ends and who is answering to whom. Skipping boring threads therefore becomes practically impossible unless I find the top comment and know the uncommunicated feature to collapse threads.

seumars 5y ago

(Greyed out comments are not a bug but a feature)

saagarjha 5y ago
Perhaps, but not everyone may want to enable this particular feature…
- codyb 5y ago
  You can turn it off by enabling “show dead”.
  - Sebb767 5y ago
    That will show dead comments, but near-dead ones are still grey. In fact, dead ones are gray too, so you effectively increase the amount of gray comments ;)