I received a phone call from my friend asking me for help. she explained that her son is visually impaired and has problems using the software on his computer in its default setup.
I have made this page to help him or anyone else who is visually impaired setup there computer to make it easier to use.
How to rearrange your desktop icons so you can find what you are looking for easier
This is my desktop before i rearrange the icons.
I right click my desktop, click view, and then unselect auto arrange icons to move my desktop icons around.
This is a screen shot of my desktop after i have moved icons.
How to change icon size to make them easier to see
I right click my desktop, click view, and then large icons to make the icons bigger.
This is my desktop after i have made the desktop icons bigger.
How to add commands to the quick access toolbar to make easier and quicker to do commands
To add commands to my quick access toolbar i click the little arrow to the right of the quick access toolbar,
click more commands.
This will give you a list of commands.
To add a command to quick access bar you click the command you want to add, then click add in the middle of the window, then OK.
To add a command to quick access bar you click the command you want to add, then click add in the middle of the window, then OK.
You should now see the newly added commands in you quick access tool bar.
How to make it easier to open a file or program, create a shortcut and place it on desktop.
To create a shortcut of a file or program you right click it, click create shortcut, and drag the shortcut onto your desktop.
This is my desktop with the shortcut to my folder.
How to use a magnifier to zoom in to see clearer what you are doing
To use magnifier to zoom in on what you are doing you hit start at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, all programs, accessories, ease of access, and magnifier.
There are 3 different ways you can magnify, These are, Full screen, Lens and Docked.
Full screen
Lens
Docked
How to setup narrator to read aloud what is on your screen
click start at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, all programs, accessories, ease of access, and then click narrator.
This will bring up a menu where you can change the speed, volume and pitch at which the narrator speaks.
You can also chose to echo key stokes, announce systems messages and announce scroll notifications.
This is a screen shot of one of my word documents with the background filled blue and the text made white. This can make it much easier for someone with a visual impairment to read the text.
Distinction
There were many changes made throughout my desktop to help the visually impaired.
First of all, enlarging the icons and spreading them out throughout the desktop makes it easier and clearer for the visually impaired to observe.
In a word document there is a quick access tool bar, which is quite useful and saves time people browsing to find the tool that they are looking for. By simply adding all important tools to the quick access tool bar will help visually impaired to work a bit faster and independently with this function.
There is also a screen reader tool, that is an additional software that does not come with a computer, but can be simply installed. This tool can be seen as a computer narrator, that can read the text of a document through the speakers and an additional feature is that it reads aloud information within a dialog box unlike the narrator tool that comes with a computer.
People who have very bad eye sight may find it hard to read from a computer, but there is an already installed narrator tool that projects the text throughout the speakers, so the visually impaired can listen to the text instead of straining themselves to read it. However, at times by changing the font of a text and background colour may make it easier for a person to read.
