On the usefulness of Aaa-links for controlling text size on web pages : preliminary results

Abstract

Aaa-links, also known as triple-a links, have over the last few years become commonplace on the web. In a move to become more universally accessible organizations have introduced Aaa-links to help users with reduced vision. This study questions this practice. Three related research questions are posed. First, how is text enlargement functionality best represented visually? Second, are these Aaa-inks really making the web-browsing experience more comfortable for users? Third, is it better to use built-in browser text-enlargement functionality? A small user test involving 30 individuals was conducted. The preliminary results suggest that the effectiveness of Aaa-links is overrated.