Accessibility Wizard

Is it installed? | Starting the Wizard
Visual Impairment | Hearing Impairment | Mouse and Keyboard
Administrative Options

Windows 98 & ME

This tutorial is for Windows 98 and ME only. If you are a Windows XP user please see my more recent tutorials on accessibility.

The accessibility wizard was first introduced into Windows 98. It gives users a simple step-by-step method of adjusting their computers' accessibility. Although its simplistic interface removed the need to know about the Windows display or the existing Accessibility Options it did rather come at a price as it allowed less flexibility. All of the options within the wizard can be accomplished elsewhere in Windows and usually with more options. The wizard has remained almost entirely unchanged from Windows 95 through to Windows XP SP2.

I personally believe that rather than relying on the Wizard, technically-competent assessors and support staff should use the Accessibility Options and the various other accessibility tools and features scattered around the Windows operating system.

The Wizard allows users to enable or adjust the following options:

• For people with visual impairment
  • scroll bar and windows border size
  • Adjust desktop icon size
  • Adjust Windows font sizes
  • Choose a high contrast colour scheme
  • Adjust mouse cursor size and colour
  • Lower screen resolution
  • Enable the Windows Magnifier
  • Enable mouse trails
• For people with physical difficulties
  • Use the keyboard to move the mouse
  • Swap the mouse buttons for left-handed users
  • Adjust Mouse speed
  • Lock Shift, Alt, and Ctrl keys for those who find it difficult to hold two keys at once
  • Set Windows to ignore inadvertent key repetitions
  • Set applications to provide extra information on how to use the keyboard as a replacement to the mouse.
• For people with hearing impairment
  • Play feedback sounds whenever Caps lock, Shift, Ctrl and Alt are pressed

The Wizard also allows 'administrative' options to be set. These include whether the completed wizard's accessibility settings should be applied as the default for new users to the computer. You can also save your settings to a special file that can then be transferred to another computer.

Is it installed?

If you know that the Accessibility Wizard is installed on to your computer then you can skip this section.

The accessibility wizard comes free with Windows 98, Windows 98SE (Second Edition) and Windows ME. However at the time that Windows 98 was installed on to your computer there is a good chance that the accessibility wizard was held back. You need to check to see if it is installed, and if not, install it.

	Go to Start then Settings then click Control Panel
	In the Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs
	In the Add/Remove Programs dialogue box, click on the Windows Setup tab If the check box next to Accessibility is empty, then you do not have any of the Accessibility options installed. Click on it and a tick will appear. If the box is grey, then you have some options installed and some not installed. Clear the box by clicking on it and then tick the box by clicking on it again. Click OK. Windows may prompt you for your original Windows 98 CD-ROM that you received with your computer. You can now continue by launching the Accessibility Wizard

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