Illinois
School for the Visually Impaired
658 East State Street Jacksonville, Illinois
62650-2130
Toll Free: 800-919-5617 Voice: 217-479-4400 TTY: 217-479-4415 Fax:
217-479-4479
www.isvi.net E-mail:
ISVI
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The following two articles are reprinted from the Vision Aware website at www.visionaware.org Vision Aware is supported in part by funding from Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation Copyright İİ 2009 Associates for World Action in Rehabilitation and Education (AWARE) a US 501 (c) (3) charitable organization. It's hard to read the information on the screen. Should I buy a bigger monitor? Simply using a larger monitor won't help you see the information on the screen any better. However, if you need to magnify that information significantly, you'll reduce the amount of visible information on the screen; in that case, having a larger monitor can be a good alternative. Keep in mind that large monitors are usually expensive, very heavy to carry, and use up a great deal of space on a desk or tabletop. Having a 20" monitor or larger will definitely affect the overall look and size of the material on the page you are viewing. For some people this may be enough. However, people with a severe vision loss will most likely change the font size of printed material to enhance reading comfort, or use a software program which magnifies the printed material comparable to that of an electronic video magnifier (or closed circuit television "CCTV") which can magnify print up to 70 times. Here is an illustration of normal size font displayed on your computer:
And here is how a screen magnification software program may render the computer screen with enlarged font:
If a larger monitor and the use of a software enlargement (screen magnification) program are not working for you, you might want to consider using a screen reader software program that has speech output. Before making this investment, we suggest you try some of the easy-to-implement strategies discussed on our site. Visit a computer store and try different size monitors and see for yourself whether size makes a difference for you. Remember, everyone's vision is different and what works for one person may not be the solution for another. How to Adapt Your Computer to Make it More Accessible Accessibility in computers and software is a growing need. Using computers at home or in the workplace has become almost essential. Because about 20% of Americans have some type of disability that inhibits computer use, computer manufacturers and software developers have made creating accessible computers and software a priority. Vision loss increases with age and as our population ages, more and more people need computers and software adapted for low vision or blindness. Vision Loss and Input vs. Output Anyone using a computer today must continually perform two tasks: Read information presented on the computer monitor (or other output device); and Provide input to the computer, either data or a command to the computer. This is usually done using either a keyboard and/or a pointing device such as a mouse. If you are blind, you can't use a mouse because you can't see and move the cursor on your computer monitor screen. People with some useful vision may or may not be able to use a mouse. However, most people with vision impairment (but not mobility impairment) can learn to use a computer keyboard. The accommodations required to make a computer usable by someone who is blind or visually impaired are to compensate for the computer user's inability to see and use a computer screen. The adaptation must be to the display of output rather than to a method of input. Screen Magnification One type of software magnifies the computer screen for people with some vision. Read more about screen magnification software on the VisionAWARE web site. Specialized browsers: Lighthouse International, a leader in advocating accessibility for people with low vision, is announcing an innovative new add-on software tool that will enable millions of people worldwide with low vision to access previously inaccessible web pages. While existing programs enable blind people to access the web effectively, LowBrowse enables people with moderate or severe low vision to both view web pages as the original web author intended and read the text on those pages tailored to their own visual needs. The highly anticipated program, which runs in conjunction with the Mozilla Firefox browser, will be offered at no charge and is expected to be available to the public for download via the Firefox add-on site. LowBrowse will work with Mozilla, IE and Mac and will be released by September 2008. Screen Reading Software If screen magnification isn't sufficient, or if you are blind, you can still use a computer by learning to use screen reading software (also called "speech synthesizer" or "speech output" software programs) to read aloud the information displayed on the screen. Microsoft and Apple Computers Provide Accessibility Features Newer computers have built-in accessibility features that may help you use any software more easily, including any calendar, email, financial, and other games, entertainment or productivity software you prefer. For Apple Computer users "Here" is where to learn more about Apple computer's built-in accessibility tools.. The MAC Leopard OS has many built-in accessibility tools. For Microsoft Computer users "For" computers running various versions of Windows and Microsoft Office software, read about Microsoft product accessibility features. The Vista OS has many built-in accessibility tools. If you use Windows XP operating system, Microsoft provides XP accessibility tutorials. |
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