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The Times has a review, Hand-Held Devices Come Into View With a Magnifying Glass, of a magnifier for PDAs. I tried a similar one with a Dell PDA I had. It did magnify the screen, but it had two drawbacks. First, it was annoying to lug around. Second, It was not strong enough magnifiaction...
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The NY Times had a review a while ago called Put the Guidebook Away and Listen While You Look about a new service that provides audio travel guides. Though I have not had a chance to try these $10 guides, I look forward to doing so on my next trip. I am very sick...
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The New Straits Times, Malaysia News Online, has a review of the accessibility of the new iPod shuffle. It seems like a great choice for those who can’t (or don’t like to) read the screens that these devices come with. Since the iPod functions without a screen with a ‘minimalist’ user interface, the iPod...
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My web wanderings uncovered another interesting resource out there. Called SeniorNet, this website is aimed at older computer users. SeniorNet’s mission is to provide older adults education for and access to computer technologies to enhance their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom. Since eyesight can deteriorate with age, SeniorNet has...
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I am a terrible typist. Despite the years of training and years of typing, I still need to watch the keyboard when I type. For some of us terrible typists, watching the keyboard doesn’t always help. Letter labels on each key fade with use. (My keyboard has almost completely lost E, A and S.)...
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Slashdot, the News for Nefds site, has a story, Patients get Solar Implants in Eyes, about a promising treatment for some kinds of severe vision loss. The Slashdot report includes an interesting discussion and link to the original new source. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup...
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Hiawatha Bray had a great column, Adapting PCs to an aging population, last Monday that captures the spirit behind this blog. I hope that the ideas that I post here will be helpful for everyone who has trouble using the compute. As Mr. Bray says; Take a good look at the words on your...
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As a supplement to some of my previous posts, here is a link to Adobe’s suggestions for Enhancing On-Screen Viewing. This includes discussion of reflowing, use of the full screen option an other accessibility features. The page describes Adobe Reader 6.0, but appears to apply equally to the latest version.
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For Internet Explorer (IE), click on Text Size in the View menu and select the appropriate size. Try out different sizes. In general, I choose Largest, but this can cause some web sites to display incorrectly. You will see when this happens if lines of text overlap each other, becoming unreadable. If this happens,...
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To follow up on my last post, I thought I would show the ways to increase font size in Firefox. The first way is to select Text Size from the View menu, then click on Increase Font Size on the submenu that appears. For me, I need to increase the font size substantially, so...
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Firefox is a recently released alternative to Internet Explorer. Firefox is open source, meaning that Firefox and its underlying computer code are publicly available for free. It has a reputation for better security (less viruses, etc.) and better adherence to WWW standards (websites display more nicely). In terms of ease of access, I find...
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I use an iPod MP3 player to listen to audiobooks. It has some great features and looks great too. I have some ideas about how to make it easier to use for those of us who find its screen hard to see. I sent the following message to Apple via its iPod feedback page...
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Many people have realized the convenience that audiobooks provide. Not only are they great for many handicapped people, but audiobooks can be helpful to just about anyone. The main inconvenience has always been managing the large number of tapes or CDs for any unabridged book. If you have not heard about it already, there...
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There is an article from Slashdot discussing a new project developing RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs. One possible implementation might be “RFID-enabled robots mounted on mobile carts which will welcome blind persons at the entrance of a supermarket and guide them through the store“. If I needed a guide dog, I think I...
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You can set Internet Explorer, known as IE, to use specific colors as well. In the Tools menu, select Internet Options. When you click on Colors, you will see this window. I recommend checking the Use Windows Colors box, but you can also specify your own color choices. Since I have set Windows to...
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