Smaller print makes bigger issue for some | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Wanganui elderly and people with impaired vision are seeing red over the small print of the city's new telephone book.

Age Concern Wanganui vice-president Lynn Stokes said at a meeting of 60 people this week a sea of hands rose when she asked if they were having difficulty reading the new telephone directory.

Because the telephone numbers were grouped closer together one woman said she had to place a ruler under the number to read it.

Other people voiced concerns that if they had not upgraded the prescription lenses in their reading glasses, they would not have been able to read the fine print in the books.

Mrs Stokes said a lot of people wanted to hang on to their glasses because of the expense of replacing them.

The new phone book would create a new expense for people who once would have got away with retaining their old glasses.

Finding a number was an immediate need for people and they would not want to go online to look, she said.

Mrs Stokes said she had already placed a magnifying glass beside the telephone book, and added that using a magnifying glass, a ruler and trying to use the telephone at the same time would be a juggling act.

Following the delivery of telephone directories to Wellington homes last week, Age Concern New Zealand issued a reminder to businesses that 600,000 older people were important consumers.

Age Concern New Zealand (ACNZ) president Liz Baxendine said the scaled-down page size could make the book difficult for older people to read.

"This is particularly unfortunate for older people who are not internet savvy and rely heavily on the book." Mrs Baxendine said she hoped the smaller font did not mean that older people, many of whom lived on little other than government superannuation, would have to rely on the 018 directory.

"Older people count.

"We form a significant part of New Zealand's demographic make-up and our population is ageing.

"It makes good economic sense for people marketing products and services to take older people's needs into consideration."

The phone books are produced by Yellow.

Yellow's communications manager Charlene White responded to questions from the Chronicle about the new-look phone book.

She said Yellow was disappointed to hear some people were not happy with the new design.

She said that before making the changes, Yellow had run focus groups in Auckland to gauge what people thought.

"They told us that while they would have liked the font size to remain at its original size, they were happy to trade off the slightly smaller font for a book that was easier to use and store."

The new books also no longer carried the phone book art competition that featured the winners on it covers.

"In 2010 due to a change in business strategy, we ended the art awards competition and are taking things in a new direction.

"The covers better highlight the various improvements that have been made to the directories," Ms White said.

THE NEW TELEPHONE BOOK

• The changes are a bid to make the format more user-friendly, making the books smaller so they are easier to use, handle and store.
• Yellow says the new format is more environmentally friendly and estimates the amount of paper used is almost five per cent less than before.
• Yellow will continue to monitor feedback over the coming months.