Despite Apple’s leading efforts in accessibility technology, I have always found iTunes extremely hard to use. Apple’s major focus has been on VoiceOver and screen reader software compatibility. There are many visually impaired computer users out there (and right here) who have not made the switch to a non-visual interface, preferring to rely...
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I garnered some First Impressions of the New Kindle DX from the NYTimes’s Gadgetwise Blog. According to the post, the new Kindle DX’s main feature is its larger size. The DX has a 9.7-inch display, which the company says is 2 1/2 times the size of the Kindle 2. But the device doesn’t feel...
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The iPhone Mail app offers an adjustable minimum font size. It is not obvious how to access this setting. Apple buried this feature in the Settings app and can not be accessed from the Mail app itself. From the home screen, tap on the Settings app. Then tap on the Mail, Contacts & Calendars...
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As seen on the Talking Books Librarian, the American Foundation for the Blind’ is conducting a Survey on Small Screen Visual Displays at http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?Mode=Survey&SurveyID=101. Taken from the website: AFB TECH, the technology arm of the American Foundation for the Blind, is currently working to establish standards to improve the readability of small screen visual displays, and...
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Next in my series of iPhone app accessibility reviews is EasyWriter. The main feature of EasyWriter, as its programmers put it, is: EasyWriter makes it easy to write emails using a bigger keyboard in landscape mode. Easywriter has one other accessibility feature that the default Mail program lacks; multitouch zoom. Between landscape mode and the zoom,...
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Scanning through the Personal Tech section of the Times, I bumped into an interesting tidbit, “Tip of the Week – Turn Your iPhone Into an e-Book – NYTimes.com“. I have an iPod Touch (the iPhone sans phone), so I ws intrigued, though remaining skeptical, by this tip. I just downloaded the app, Stanza, to...
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Following up on my earlier post about the lack of accessible Vista themes and my current feelings on standard internet color schemes, I posted the following to the accessible Google Group: Alternative Google Color Schemes – accessible | Google Groups< For the visually impaired, Google’s (as well as MS and most websites) color scheme is downright...
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As I noted in the last post, I have just moved to a Windows Vista machine. I have spent the last few days looking for a decent theme with large fonts and good light-on-dark contrast. There are none! The Windows high contrast themes, besides being hideous, do not have large text. To check these out,...
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At first, I did not like the new Internet Explorer (IE). It buried the accessibility options I like most (text size and ignore colors specified on webpages). There is one new redeeming feature, the new zoom. Zoom does what it says. Just like zooming in and out with your camera, zoom lets you magnify websites...
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Pogue’s post this past week, As We Get Older, Type Gets Smaller, addresses a major issue that I think about too much. I reset the screen resolution, override default fonts and sometimes use Zoomtext. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.
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I had a response form Verizon (who obviously did not read my initial message carefully) which just blew me off. Here is the response and my response: As I said in the original message, I had difficulty testing each phone in the store. First, the store’s inventory did not match the online store’s inventory. Second,...
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I am looking at getting a new cell phone. I don’t need a fully voice-controlled, phone, but I would like one where the text is large and easy to read. I am having a hard time finding one. Companies do not advertise high contrast text settings, even if they have them. My wife and I...
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PC Magazine has a tip on dealing with Font Size in Balloons. This should help you resize the font in those little comment balloons in Word. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider buying me a cup of coffee.
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Have you ever tried to change the font in a MS Word document full of equations? It does not work. Well, it works for the text, but not for the equations. To adjust the equations, you have to open each one individually, which is a complete waste of a lot of time. I bumped into...
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Jakob Nielsen, a ‘crusader’ for web usability, wrote a plea,Let Users Control Font Size (Alertbox Aug. 2002), a few years ago. In this article, Nielsen articulates an idea that I have been percolating for a long time. From his column, Consider adding a button that loads an alternate style sheet with really big font sizes...
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