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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The first step to making a computer more accessible is to make everything on the screen bigger. This involves tricks like lowering the rsolution, zooming and using large fonts. These adjustments definitely increase readability and overall usability. There is a cost. Screen real estate becomes more valuable. Even larger monitors experience this problem. I use...
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A fun way to liven up your computer screen is to add a favorite photo as the desktop background. The problem is the your family portrait or pet collage make the icons difficult to make out and the text hard to read. Moving to a solid color background, such as black, makes for a...
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Lst week, the Gadgetwise Blogat the NY Times offered this Tip of the Week: Desktop Magnifying Glass. Tired of squinting at tiny type the screen all day? In Windows Vista, you can bump up the font size — right-click on the desktop, select Personalize and click on “Adjust font size.” Once the “DPI Scaling” window...
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A while back, I thought I had a great idea. I still think its is a great idea, but I was beaten to it. One of the major reasons I rarely use magnification software is that I find the process disorienting. You lose either the whole screen or an important piece of it 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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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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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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Changing your display resolution has both pros and cons. The pros include larger desktop icons with larger text for the operating system, incuuding the Taskbar (in Windows) or the Dock (in OS X). Lower display resolutions only affect the operating system and not the applications you use, so Internet Explorer, for example, won’t display...
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