As a baby boomer with steadily declining vision, I am grateful that the computer make it possible for me to write and do research. By using simple, easily available tools, I can do pretty much whatever I need to online. For those of us who are not so visually impaired that we require text-to-speech technology, there are many options for consuming and creating information.

I’ve discovered that some people don’t know how simple it is to enlarge the text of a document, presentation, spreadsheet, or browser. You just hold down the Control key and scroll up or down. Of course, you can change the text size in any common application, but this is not goodwhen you have to share materials with your more visually acute brethren who find themselves looking at huge text when smaller versions will do just fine for them. You can also use the “zoom” feature which has the same effect as scrolling but, at least for me, isn’t as handy. Since there’s no such feature on a browser, I find it easier to just use the scrolling method to enlarge the text of whatever I’m working on.

Magnifier

Even when you’ve found a way to work with the applications you use regularly, you still can find yourself at a loss when it comes to reading important text on the computer. Names of folders on the desktop, items in menus, and rollover text for taskbar icons, are all in small fonts that can be difficult, or even impossible, to read. You can enlarge icons and their titles, but the huge size can be annoying when you are looking for something.

Fortunately, Windows comes with a magnifier. It’s located at All Programs > Accessories > Accessibility. The Magnifier appears as a strip at the top of the screen which enlarges whatever your cursor is pointing at or what you are typing. Most of the time, whatever you’re working on automatically repositions itself below the Magnifier, so you can still see the top  (More on this later.) You can adjust the degree of magnification and move the magnifier around if you like although I’ve found that across the top works the best for me.

The Magnifier is great for helping you see all those things that you can’t enlarge, like iTunes and menu lists. It does take some getting used to. It takes up an inch or so of the screen, which can be a little annoying. Reading with it isn’t convenient because, since the size of the text is enlarged, it doesn’t show a complete line. You have to move the cursor across the line instead of just moving your eyes, which is a pain. It’s better to scroll bigger if you can, to read. Writing works well with the Magnifier, however, because it just follows what you’re typing.

A drawback of using the Magnifier is that, every once in a while, I open an application that doesn’t recognize it and the top of whatever I need to see is covered up by the magnification strip at the top of the screen. When that happens, you just have to close the magnifier.

Flash

For me, the biggest headaches to reading on the computer are applications created in Flash. Content in Flash nearly always has an exceptionally small font, sometimes 8 points, or even smaller. Sometimes you can enlarge the text by scrolling, but sometimes you can’t, or making it bigger positions important parts of the screen out of your view unless you move the cursor. The Magnifier helps, but it only magnifies what your cursor is on, so you can only look at one thing at a time. This makes it impossible to read or work on one thing and keep your eye on something else at the same time. I haven’t found any solution to this problem yet, so I would suggest that teachers try to find alternatives to Flash programs for visually impaired students.

I’ve been happy to discover that some simple tools can help me see what I need to see on my computer. I’d love to hear any more ideas about how to address the needs of visually impaired students and educators.