Adapting the Windows Display for people with Visual Impairment

Visual difficulties such as photophobia can reduce the length of sessions for a person due to the onset of headache or eye fatigue. The glare of the computer can be reduced either on the screen itself or through the selection of appropriate 'calm' colour schemes. Also the introduction of some synthesized speech can off-load some of the work onto the auditory modality.

Users with low acuity may find that they can see the screen adequately by positioning themselves very close to the screen. However this could have an impact on the health of their back and neck and Windows again offers accessibility features that avoid this.

People with a greater degree of visual impairment may find the computer completely inaccessible without having the display adjusted in some manner. This may involve specialist software from a third-party.

• Case Study: Steven
• Setting a font style, size, and colour permanently in Microsoft Word
• My assessment strategy for those with low-vision
• Using Windows' built-in alternative colour and font size schemes
• Switching between specialist and regular display schemes with a single keypress
• Fine-tuning the Windows display
• Making everything bigger by adjusting the resolution
• Changing the size and colour of the mouse pointer
• Adding trails to make pointer tracking easier
• Locating the mouse pointer using the CTRL key
• Adjusting the width and blink rate of the text cursor
• Making toolbars buttons larger in Word
• Adding supportive speech synthesis with ReadPlease
• Reducing Screen Glare
• Sreenreaders for those with no functional vision