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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large print
Have you ever had trouble reading some text on your computer? I have. Here are the ideas and solutions that I have found to make the computer screen a little easier on the eyes.
Slashdot: RFID-Equipped Robots Used as Guide Dogs
Contrast options in Internet Explorer
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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Setting up Lignt-on-Dark Contrast for PDFs
Adobe Reader 7.0 allows users to change the coloers used to display PDF files. If you go to the Edit menu and select Preferences, you will see a new indow with a list of options on the left. Select Accessibility and you will see the following window. Check the Replace Document Colors box and...
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High Contrast and Dark-on-Light Windows
Rather than sharing a particular software trick in this post, I will share some wisdom from one of my eye doctors, Gerald Friedman. First, let me point out the obvious (something so obvious I could not find it discussed anywhere online). The better the contrast is, the easier it is on the eye. Finding...
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Maccessibility: Why blind users can’t register at Slashdot
Slashdot, the “News for Nerds” site I referenced in a n earlier post, is on the accessibility hot seat in this column, Why blind users can’t register at Slashdot, from Maccessibility, a blog aimed at Mac web developers. Slashdot, among a lengthening list of other sites, requires users to type in text read from...
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LaTeX: Changing the Font Size
Caveat Emptor – This post is a not for everyone. It is about a typesetting software, called LaTeX, which is primarily used in technical, academic fields, such as economics or mathematics. I regularly need to read PDF files generated in LaTeX for my day job. There are some accessibility problems with these files. Generally,...
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Apple’s Vision Accessibility Information
As I posted Microsoft’s Resource Guide for the visually impaired a few days ago, I felt I should add a post on Apple’s Vision Accessibility page. Apple discusses several features of OS X, including a ‘spoken interface’, a ‘Zoom’ option and special Display settings. Apple also links to a number of ‘Third Party Solutions’....
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Slashdot: Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind
Slashdot, the self-proclaimed “New for Nerds” site, has posted an interesting article,Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind. The story describes (and links to) an article from Cornell University about a blind graduate student’s work on making maps accessible to blind people. I am looking forward to ‘seeing’ a demonstration someday! If you find...
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Increasing Font Size
Increasing the font size in the way I describe here is a small, though useful, step towards making the computer easier to see. This procedure will enlarge the fonts on your desktop, such as the names of icons, and the fonts in used in the Taskbar and dialog boxes. It does not affect the...
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Winning the "Boor War"
Back in early 1997, I read a great article, The Boor War by John Tierney, in the New York Times Magazine. He used the theories of an economist, Robert Axelrod, to argue for more cranks: Which is to say, we need more cranks. We need cab passengers to punish noise pollution by refusing to...
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Karl Bruno Stargardt
On a personal note, I have always been curious about how my eye condidtion, Stargardt’s Diseast, was named. Looking through the web for something else, I came across this entry in a site called Whonamedit.com, which “is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms“. It turns out that this condition was first documented by this...
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A picture is worth a thousand words.
This cartoon of a man with his nose through his laptop’s screen is an apt metaphor for how I use a computer. The motivation behind this blog is to share all the tips and tricks I have learned to ‘unstick’ my nose from the monitor. Image Courtesy of Brian Basset and Microsoft Corporation If...
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Microsoft’s Resource Guide for Individuals with Vision Difficulties and Impairments
I just discovered Microsoft’s Resource Guide for Individuals with Vision Difficulties and Impairments. Some of the topics on this blog will overlap with information from this site, but I will try to keep this blog complementary to sites like this. I will try to highlight the more useful accessibility features and to report the...
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The New York Times Large Print Weekly
Here is another off-topic suggestion. This one is for those New York Times fans who like to get your hands inky while reading the news. The Times offers a large print weekly, to which I subscribed for a while. I liked it a lot, especially the Large Print version of the crossword puzzle. I...
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NYTimes: MoMA Helps Visitors To Use Ears To See
This is a little off-topic, but interesting nonetheless. A few weeks ago the New York Times ran an article, “MoMA Helps Visitors To Use Ears To See” on the front page of its Arts section describing the Museum of Modern Art’s launch of a new set of audio guides. One of these audio tours,...
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