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#Post#: 3484--------------------------------------------------
All caps - visual impairment
By: mime Date: May 24, 2018, 11:22 pm
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I came across this in a FB group this week. The active people in
the group consists of people ranging from 30-ish to early 80s.
They live in (or are originally from) the same part of the city.
There are several groups for this part of the city, and this one
seems to be the most nostalgic and the average age is a bit
older than the others.
One woman posted something that inadvertently started a big
argument. What she posted wasn't at all relevant to the
argument. The problem was that she posted in all caps.
So, someone right away asked "why are you yelling at us?"
She responded that she wasn't yelling
Someone else pointed out that posting in all caps was the same
as yelling
Another person spoke up and mentioned that the original poster
was visually impaired and she has to use all caps to see what
she's typing. (That leaves some questions for me about how she
can read others' posts, but maybe there's something in reading
vs writing that I'm not considering. anyway...)
At the same time, the original poster apologized, and stated
that she was blind and not very tech-savvy so she needed to use
all caps.
Someone else said that she needs to change her screen resolution
on her phone so she doesn't need to post in all caps... and
[s]suggested[/s] insisted that she make no more posts until she
could do this.
The overwhelming response was that the rest of the group would
manage just fine with her writing in all caps, and wanted to be
sure that she felt welcome in the group.
In the middle of all of this, there were plenty of nasty posts
about non-tech-savvy people should stay away from the internet
until they learn how to do stuff right, people continuing to
complain about the original 'yelling' post, people complaining
about the complaints, people wondering how on earth they're
supposed to yell on FB if all-caps is considered regular voice,
and people complaining that the complainers were a bunch of
bullies who should go away.
So... I'm curious to hear thoughts on this. My first impression
was that this was yelling, and that this lady was either
irrationally emotional about her post (I think it was about mail
delivery) or just lazy with her typing. Then I understood the
situation and figured 'no big deal.' So, I'm clearly biased. Now
I'm curious: do others here think this lady should have to
figure out how to change her phone magnification so she can post
in non-caps, or should the group just accept this as an
accommodation?
I suspect that she really had no idea that all-caps was
considered yelling, and was truly surprised at the backlash she
got from her post.
#Post#: 3504--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: Hmmm Date: May 25, 2018, 9:02 am
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I think the people complaining should just scroll on by if they
are so offended by all caps and see it as yelling. To me, these
community FB groups are like getting together at the
neighborhood community center. If I encountered someone who was
yelling there I might ask why they are yelling. If told they are
hard of hearing, I'd say oh ok, that's understandable. Or if it
was too loud for me is move away and not stay in the
conversation.
I wouldn't be telling a stranger that they couldn't talk till
they learned to moderate their volume nor would I be advising
them about getting hearing aid devices to make my experience in
the community center better.
#Post#: 3505--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: Bada Date: May 25, 2018, 9:05 am
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Gosh, there's a lot of layers here! The bullying and
meanness...that poor writer.
However, the odd thing to me is that she's on her phone, and
that she types in all caps in her posts because it makes it
easier to read her own posts...
I know that being legally blind doesn't mean "literally unable
to see," but it does indicate severe vision problems. Given how
difficult *I* find typing and reading on my phone (I'm in my
30s), I don't really understand why she's attempting it. I'd
think pushing the keys would be too hard to get right, since
they're small.
There's probably software she's using to read the page to her.
(I know it exists for the computer at least.) If she's on her
phone, I wonder that she doesn't use text to speech programs or
something. Those wouldn't produce a response in all caps.
But the bullying is uncalled for even if, like me, those people
are confused by the explanations she's offering.
To the point, though: I think I'd let her post in all caps
since if (when) I found it to be super annoying I could just
skip over her posts. What harm does it do me to have those posts
there? If it lets her feel involved, then good.
I guess length is also an issue here. It's hard to read
something long in all caps, even if you know they're not
"yelling," so I'd for sure skip any long posts.
#Post#: 3506--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: Pattycake Date: May 25, 2018, 9:12 am
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I too find it odd that she isn't using voice/text. I have a
totally blind friend that uses it all the time, and her texts
and emails come out in regular type.
HOWever... it isn't the end of the world - she might not know
how to voice text. Once I found out why she was doing it, I
would be fine. Unless she's typing a wall of text, in which case
I might gently suggest she break it up with paragraph spacing
between sentences. Or if she has a computer, suggest that for
longer posts she increase her resolution on the computer and not
do all caps. But if not, it's not like it's harmful to read all
caps - sheesh!
#Post#: 3525--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: QueenFaninCA Date: May 25, 2018, 12:26 pm
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There are plenty of ways on pretty much any device to increase
the font size without having to resort to all caps. All caps is
harder to read than proper capitalization. I'd be happy to help
the person figure out a way to avoid all caps but if they
persist, I'd likely ignore them.
#Post#: 3538--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: iolaus Date: May 25, 2018, 2:16 pm
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This is an occurance on another forum I am on
The visually impaired lady says she uses caps so she can
indentify which was her last post and where she needs to use the
software from that point on
#Post#: 3558--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: TootsNYC Date: May 25, 2018, 5:08 pm
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If an entire post is in all caps, I don't think it's
automatically yelling; I think the content of the post will tell
you more about whether it is.
(The president of our co-op once sent an email critical of me,
and she typed it in all caps, so it really did look like she was
yelling. She was also factually wrong, LOL)
I would bet that the content of her post wasn't all that
"yell-y." What impression did you gather?
So I don't actually think it's polite to say, "Why are you
yelling?"
I think it's best to say, "All caps is hard to read, and it can
come across as though you're yelling.
after that, then I think there were some phenomenally rude and
mean people.
If that's someone's posting style, you just get used to it--just
the way you get used to seeing how someone signs their name.
#Post#: 3598--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: diesel_darlin Date: May 26, 2018, 1:23 am
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I play fishworld on fb, and the community page sees this
argument on the daily. There are several posters that I simply
don't interact with because of the fact that they use caps lock
on every single post.
#Post#: 3606--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: Hanna Date: May 26, 2018, 7:08 am
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Does anyone *actually* type in all caps to create the effect of
yelling?
I just think they aren’t good at typing and don’t understand
internet etiquette, about 95% of the time.
#Post#: 3608--------------------------------------------------
Re: All caps - visual impairment
By: Sycorax Date: May 26, 2018, 7:20 am
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I'm not going to automatically assume someone's *yelling*, but
I'm also more likely to skip over the the post if it's hard to
read. (This goes for poorly formatted and extra long posts, too)
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