ITC



Slide 1- Computer Access by Kathy Griffin, Assistive Technology Professional. I have over twenty years experience in adapted computer access.

Slide 2 - The computer is perhaps the most revolutionary tool to provide access to information since the invention of the printing press.

Slide 3 - A computer can provide access to libraries of books and information for individuals who have a print disability - who are either blind, have a visual impairment or are not able to physically hold a book. A computer also reads text for those individuals who have a print disability such as dyslexia. A computer can provide access to family and friends for individuals who have a speech disability - those individuals whose speech is very hard to understand. A computer can provide a way for individuals to compose who cannot write by hand - those individuals who either cannot hold a pencil/pen, who do not have the physical strength to exert enough pressure to make marks on paper, or have tremoring in their hands that make handwriting extremely difficult.

Slide 4 - What exactly makes up a computer? The modern computer has a CPU - the guts, a visual display, a keyboard and a mouse.

Slide 5 - Unfortunately there are problems iwith using a computer by many individuals who have disabilities.

Slide 6 - This is because a computer requires that you be able to see and understand the display. The computer requires you to be able to have enough finger control to use a keyboard for text entry. The computer requires you to have enough hand-to-eye coordination to use a mouse to access the programs on the computer.

Slide 7 - What can be done to make the computer display visible to a person who is blind? What can be done to modify or eliminate the keyboard? What can be done to eliminate the mouse?

Slide 8 – This presentation will discuss the ways to make the computer accessible for persons with disabilities to use. There are ways to make a computer display easier to see, to modify or eliminate the keyboard, and to modify or eliminate the mouse.

Slide 9 – What type of problems are there with with standard keyboard? One problem is that the keys are small – from one half inch square to five-eigths inch square.

Slide 10 – The letters on the standard keyboard are very difficult to see. Either they are a dark gray on beige keys or in the case of a laptop, they are light gray on black. Another big problem with seeing the keys is that the text size is very small.

Slide 11 – The keys are very close together and even if your only problem is large hands, they are very hard to select individual, isolated keys.

Slide 12 - With the standard keyboard it is very easy to hit multiple letters from a single tap.

Slide 13 – It is very easy to get multiple copies of the same letter from a single tap.

Slide 14 – The standard keyboard is geared for typing with two hands.

Slide 15 - Another issue is that the QWERTY layout is very inefficient. The QWERTY layout was originally designed to be the most inefficient method possible so that typists using the first manual typewriters would not be able to type fast enough to jam and lock the keys together. Even with this layout excellent typists were able to type 95 words a minute.

Slide 16 – Adaptations for keyboards with too small keys include the BigKeys keyboard which has one inch square keys

Slide 17 – Pictures of the BigKeys keyboard compared to a standard keyboard. The BigKeys does not have as many keys as a standard keyboard.

Slide 18 – Adaptations for keyboards that are too hard to see include using high contrast letters – black on yellow or white on black – with large font letters.

Slide 19 – Additional keyboard adaptations for keys that are hard to see you can add high contrast labels to a standard keyboard. You could also add Braille labels to a standard keyboard.

Slide 20 – Keyboard adaptations for keys that are too close together their is the Intellikeys keyboard. The Intellikeys keyboard is a flat membrane keyboard that has several overlays with different keyboard layouts. One layout is especially designed for using the internet with a variety of keys that do what you would normally use a mouse for. The Intellikeys keyboard layouts also include one that is an ABC layout. The Intellikeys keyboard will work with any computer program and works with any computer after the installation of appropriate software.

Slide 21 - With additional software - “Overlay Maker” you can make any keyboard layout you want or need. This overlay allows a student to type words by selecting a picture.

Slide 22 – Another keyboard adaptation for keys that are too close together is the ErgoDex Keyboard. This keyboard has you assign keystroke commands to the individual key. The keys are individual buttons that feel just like the keys on the standard keyboard.

Slide 23 - The key can be placed anywhere at all onto the keyboard and can be moved anywhere on the keyboard with the key contents intact. The ErgoDex keys can also hold a combination of letters and keyboard commands such as Control plus C for copy. The ErgoDex keyboard keys will only work within one computer program at a time on the Windows OS. It will work across programs on the Macintosh OS. The ErgoDex keyboard was originally designed for computer gamers so it costs much less than an Intellikeys keyboard.

Slide 24 – Adaptations to the standard keyboard that prevent hitting multiple keys with a single tap, include the Intellikeys keyboard because it has more room between letters. Also, the Intellikeys settings allows you to set a timer on the keys that a key has to be depressed for a certain period of time before the computer will accept the keystroke. A lot of individuals with disabilities drag their hand across the keyboard so the letter they want is the one they stay on the longest.

Slide 25 – Pictured is the Intellikeys keyboard settings Control Panel. To modify the keyboard to prevent unwanted key repeats is to slow down the key repeat rate or to turn on Required lift-off so that the computer will only accept the keystroke when the finger is lifted.

Slide 26 – Another way to prevent multiple copies of the same letter is to go to the Keyboard settings in the Control Panel.

Slide 27 – Pictured is the Keyboard settings in the Control Panel. Here you can increase the Repeat Delay and slow down the Repeat Rate.

Slide 28 – Another method it prevent multiple copies of the same letter from a single tap is Ease of Access in the Accessories program in Windows OS.

Slide 29 – Pictured is the Ease of Access in Accessories program. You can accomplish this by turning on Filter Keys.

Slide 30 – Pictured is the Filter Keys Controls. It also has a test zone where you can fine tune your settings.

Slide 31 – The standard keyboard requires the use of two hands – if you have only one hand for typing try a smaller keyboard. Pictured is the WinMini and a Little Fingers Keyboard. Both of these can be easily used by one hand – even a small hand.

Slide 32 – This is a Bat One-Handed Keyboard which works like the machine that court reporters use so that they can type every word spoken in a courtroom. The Bat keyboard has seven keys that are activated in combinations to type the alphabet. It has a steep learning curve, but one can type very quickly.

Slide 33 - “Five-Finger Typist” is a typing tutor that teaches how to touch type on a standard Keyboard using one hand. It teaches the fingering plan for one rather than two hands.

Slide 34 – What do you use when you do not have any hand use? You can use a mouthstick or a head pointer.

Slide 35 – There are other typing layouts beyond the QWERTY or ABC layouts. One of these can be much more efficient for use with either one-hand or with a mouthstick or headpointer. The one pictured on this slide is the Dvorak layout for the left hand. You will notice that all of the numbers are on the right hand side of the keyboard and that there are letters in all four rows of keys.

Slide 36 – The Dvorak layout for the right hand is pictured on this slide. You will see that it is a mirror image of the Dvorak left-handed layout.

Slide 37 – As the QWERTY keyboard layout is so inefficient, are there any other keyboard layouts that are more efficient? Here is pictured the Dvorak two-handed layout. This was designed to be a much more efficient key layout than the standard QWERTY layout.

Slide 38 – This is another keyboard layout – the Maltron pictured here. The keyboard is curved with the edges higher than the center. It is also a good keyboard layout for individuals who hands have been deformed by either arthritis or cerebral palsy.

Slide 39 – The keyboard layout pictured here is from the Tash Mini – that is a frequency of use layout. Frequency of use means that the most commonly used letters in English surround the center red space button. The less frequently the letter is used the further it is from the center.

Slide 40 – An onscreen keyboard is displayed on the computer display. You must have enough usable vision to see the keyboard on the screen. You also have to be able to use a mouse or a mouse emulator. An onscreen keyboard is also referred to as a virtual keyboard because it does not require any keyboard. It is also referred to as a mouse-driven keyboard.

Slide 41 – Here is an example of an onscreen keyboard positioned on text document.

Slide 42 – Many onscreen keyboards have word prediction capabilities built into them. The red circle is over the word prediction option . With word prediction you start typing a word and a list of words that start with those letters appear. You can choose the one you want. Word prediction can really save on keystrokes because the most you would type would be the entire word and the longer the word the more likely it will be on the word list.

Slide 43 – There are built-in onscreen keyboards available in Windows XP and Vista operating systems. They do not have word prediction built into them and the size of the keyboard is rather small.

Slide 44 – The onscreen keyboard built into Windows 7 can be adjusted in size.

Slide 45 – This onscreen keyboard is a free one available online from called “Click N'Type”. It can be resized and has keyboards for many foreign languages.

Slide 46 – Pictured is a commercial program - “Screendoors” from Madentec. It has built-in word prediction.

Slide 47 - Pictured is a commercial program - “REACH” from Applied Human Factors. “REACH” can be modified to be any layout or a word/picture bank. It has word prediction and letter prediction. Letter prediction works by only showing letters on a keyboard that commonly follow that letter in English. If you are using switch scanning, it greatly speeds up text entry, because the scanning has far fewer targets to go to and scanning speed is much, much faster.

Slide 48 – What type of problems are there with the standard mouse?

Slide 49 – The standard mouse requires fine motor control away from the body. You have to be able to stretch out your hand from the shoulder.

Slide 50- The standard mouse requires the ability to synchronize hand movement to what you see on the computer display. You have to be able to direct the cursor to a small target on the desktop. Pictured is my desktop.

Slide 51 – The standard mouse requires the ability to isolate one finger movement and have a lateral movement of one and one/fourth inches or the ability to isolate two fingers movement.

Slide 52 – The standard mouse requires the ability to push with a finger to click. Some individuals can move the mouse but they do not have the strength to push the button to click or their fingers tremor so much that they are unable to make the click.

Slide 53 – The standard mouse requires the ability to push with the finger two clicks close together.

Slide 54 – As the standard mouse requires fine motor control away from the body – try a much smaller mouse. Pictured are five different examples of very small mice.

Slide 55 – As the standard mouse requires fine motor control away from the body – try a joystick or trackball. Pictured are a marble-style trackball, a Penny+Giles Joystick Plus and a Penny+Giles Trackball Plus.

Slide 56 – As the standard mouse requires the ability to synchronize hand movement to what the eye is seeing – try a touch screen either an add-on onethat goes over the computer display or is built-in to the computer display itself as in the pictured augmentative communication device.

Slide 57 – As the standard mouse requires the ability to isolate one finger movement and have a lateral movement of one and one-fourth inches or the ability to isolate two fingers movement – try joysticks or trackballs.

Slide 58 – Joysticks and trackballs can be used to move the cursor and then use something other than a finger to push the mouse buttons. Pictured are models which work well for this type of selection – Mini Joystick with Push and a Cruse Trackball, both are from Ablenet, Inc.

Slide 59 – The standard mouse requires the ability to push with a finger to click. What can click if you can't isolate one finger to click – how about a switch-adapted mouse or a switch that preforms a left mouse click. Pictured are RJ Cooper's Switch-Adapted Mouse and a Rock Switch-Adaped Joystick from Ablenet, Inc.

Slide 60 – The standard mouse requires the ability to push with a finger two quick clicks. Pictured are the Penny+Giles Joystick Plus and the CRUISE adapted trackpad.

Slide 61 – Both of these devices have a separate button for a double-click so it only takes one click to get the same result as a double-click. Pictured is a close-up of the double-click button of the Penny+Giles option.

Slide 62 – Both of these devices also have a separate button for Click & Drag. This function alone is very difficult for many individuals with hand-use issues. With this separate button one no longer has to hold the left mouse button down and then move the mouse to perform click and drag functions. Pictured is the close-up of the Click & Drag button of the Penny+Giles option.

Slide 63 – What is you don't have good use of your hands at all? Do you have good head control? Then you can try a mouse controlled by the movement of your head. Head control is especially useful for individuals with upper level spinal cord injuries that have resulted in quadraplegia. Often head control is the only available option.

Slide 64 – A mouse that is controlled by your head often requires a small camera that is mounted or sitting on top of the computer display. The camera tracks the movement of your eyes and has callibration controls built into it that puts the mouse cursor where the camera thinks you are looking. Pictured is one option – a Headmouse from Origin. It costs around one thousand dollars. One problem with the camera mouse is that they are very sensitive to room lighting and sunlight.

Slide 65 – Another mouse controlled by head movement is the Smart-Nav (pictured). It is also a camera mouse. It costs less than five hundred dollars. Like the ErgoDex it was designed for the gamer market so that explains the much lower price.

Slide 66 – The Tracker Pro (pictured) is also a camera mouse. It is made by Madentec and works well with this company's onscreen keyboard. It also costs around a thousand dollars.

Slide 67 – The LaZee Mouse (pictured) can either be contolled by the head or warn on the foot or hand depending on if you can use either your foot or hand. The LaZee Mouse uses a tilt-sensor rather than a camera. The LaZee Mouse costs aroung eight hundred dollars.

Slide 68 – A mouth-controlled mouse does not require the use of your hands at all. Pictured is the Integra Mouse which is held in the mouth and operated by the tongue. It costs approximately twenty-seven hundred dollars.

Slide 69 – Pictured is another mouth-controlled mouse the Quadjoy. It costs around eleven hundred dollars.

Slide 70 – Another hands-free option is available if you have good verbal skills. Voice Recognition software can provide hands-free computer use. It can be used not only for text dictation, but also to open/close programs, open/close menu options and other computer settings.

Slide 71 – The voice recognition diagram was created from one published in “Closing the Gap” magazine. This diagram shows the requirements for voice recognition to be successful for an individual wherever they will be using it – home, school, or employment. Often we only consider the abilitites of the individual and not the setting where they will be using the adapted computer access. For voice recognition to be successful, the setting where it will be used is critical.

Slide 72 – First we will look at the requirements for the individual themselves.

Slide 73 – The individual was screened to determine needs and goals for the use of voice recognition. The individual must have a desire to succeed and invest the time and effort in this skill development. This is often one of the most critical requirements for voice recognition success. In one study, seven students were trained on how to use voice recognition. After one month only three were still using it. After three months only one student was still using it and was being very successful. The obvious requirements for an individual is adequate verbal skills, adequate cognitive abilities, and compatible behavior traits. Other requirements include comfort with technology, and good problem-solving skills.

Slide 74 – Next we need to look at the requirements for parents, teachers or employers.

Slide 75 - Factors that promote successful implementation of voice recognition in either school or employment settings include technically adventurous and resourceful leaders, comfort with technology, good problem-solving skills, and providing adequate training time with ongoing support. Employers, school administration or parents also need to be comfortable working towards ambiguous or sometimes unclear results and provide necessary resources, flexibility and support.

Slide 76 – Finally we'll look at important other considerations.

Slide 77 – There is a critical need to develop and implement assessment procedures and strategies to guide individual selection and training. There also is a great need to provide trial opportunities with the use of voice recognition before final decision is made. Often the individual will need assistance with learning how to dictate. The skills needed for dictation are far different than the skills needed for conversation. Other options must also be available, especially for times when the computer is down. There is also a great need to encourage flexibility and open communication among all participants in this process so committment and support will be available among both users and support individuals.

Slide 78 – There is voice recognition built into both Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. Voice recognition is accessed by going to Accessories in the Program list, then click on Ease of Access icon and select voice recognition. Pictured is this menu tree and the opening screen of the voice recognition program. The Windows 7 voice recognition does have many hands-free commands built into it.

Slide 79 – “Dragon NaturallySpeaking” is considered to be the best commercial voice recognition software program. It provides both text entry and computer control.

Slide 80 – Another voice recognition program is “WordQ with SpeakQ”. “WordQ” is a word prediction program and with the addition of “SpeakQ” you can either speak a word for the word prediction or you can speak all of your text entry. While you can use “SpeakQ” for text entry, it does not do any computer commands. It does not provide hands-free computer operation.

Slide 81 – If you only have use of your eyes and facial muscles you can use a Cyberlink. With a Cyberlink you can get a consistent left mouse click by simply widening your eyes. The cursor is moved by quick eye movements to the right or left.

Slide 82 – What is you don't have good use of you hands? You do have movement control over one part of your body such as a foot, a knee, an elbow or an eyebrow. Then you can use a switch to activate a computer. Switch use is not direct selection and takes a lot longer, but it is very do-able.

Slide 83 – You can use any switch from the Impulse switch shown on the gentleman's cheek, a blink switch or the IntelliSwitch from Madentec which are all pictured here. You can use a Big Red, a Jelly Bean, or a Spec switch – any switch.

Slide 84 – While you can use any switch, you do need to use a switch interface. A switch interface takes the click of a switch to a signal that can interpreted by a computer. Pictured are the Crick USB Switch Interface, the Hitch switch interface from Ablenet, and the Mini Switch Interface from RJ Cooper.

Slide 85 – You can also use an Intellikeys keyboard as a switch interface.

Slide 86 – Since a switch does not allow you to point and click, you need another strategy to access your computer. This strategy is called “scanning”. This is not like scanning a document or photo into a computer, but refers to a visual strategy – like scanning for ships on the horizon while at sea. There are two types of switch scanning – automatic and step-scanning. In automatic scanning, the computer movers the cursor or scan from item to item using a timer. You use one switch for automatic scanning as the switch is used to select the item that the cursor or scan is on. In step-scanning two switches are used – one to advance the scan and another switch for the selection.

Slide 87 – Row/Column scanning is an efficient method of scanning. Shown here is the first step. The scan starts by going down the rows of the keyboard. The row that is black is the row that the scan is currently on. If this is the row that has the item you want, you would click the switch.

Slide 88 – Then the scan divides the keyboard into columns, each five keys in width. The middle column is black in the picture so that is where the scan is at. If the key you want is in this column – you hit the switch.

Slide 89 – When the column you want is selected, the scan will then go key by key in that column. Here the letter “t” is black indicating where the scan is and if you want this letter then you hit the switch. It took three switch hits to get the letter “t” using automatic scanning.

Slide 90 – The REACH Onscreen keyboard has a feature called SmartKeys. This feature can greatly increase scanning efficiency. The light turquoise key is where the scan is and if you want that letter, a “c”, you hit the switch.

Slide 91 – On this screen you see the next screen of the scan. With SmartKeys the only keys available for scanning are the letters that most commonly follow the letter “c” in English. This shortens the number of options that you must scan through.

Slide 92 – After you have made the next selection, a new keyboard appears that has the letters that most commonly follow the two previously selected letters.

Slide 93 – There is also scanning by item. Pictured is an example of item scanning from “Classroom Suite” by Intellitools.

Slide 94 – Another useful tool to use with scanning is an option called inverse scanning. This is where the scan starts at the bottom and then goes up instead of the normal method of starting at the top and going down. Inverse scanning can save a lot of time when scanning a keyboard. You don't have to wait for the scan the row of numbers before it gets to the letters.

Slide 95 - Switch scanning requires good vision as you have to watch the scan in order to select the letter or item you want. What if you don't have good vision? You can use auditory scanning. With auditory scanning there is a brief spoken message describing what the scan is over. If you were doing row/column scanning the message would be “number one through backspace” for the first row of the keyboard. It would say “number one through five” for the first column if the first row was selected by the scan. Auditory scanning works best with step-scanning. Saying each message and then moving on is extremely slow and time-consuming. With step-scanning you can quickly advance the scan when you hear the first part of the message without having to listen to it in its entirity.

Slide 96 – Row/column scanning does not work as well with the icons on the desktop. Also row/column scanning a keyboard is a function of the onscreen keyboard being used. “Crosscanner” by RJ Cooper allows scanning of the desktop and any other programs. In “Crosscanner” a bar starts at the top left-hand corner of the computer display and goes down. When the bar reaches the level on the display where the item you want you hit the switch. Then a finger moves from the left to the right. When the finger gets to where the item you want, hit the switch and you will be given the options of one left click, doubleclick, or click-and-drag.

Slide 97 – There are also switch utility programs such as “ScanBuddy” by Appled Human Factors. “ScanBuddy” divides the display in half, each half is highlighted and you click on the half you want. This half is again divided in half progressing as you select which half you want until there is a very small section of the display is available. Then a descending line and horizontal hand as is “Crosscanner” provides access to the desired item, icon, or letter.

Slide 98 – Automatic scanning and step-scanning – What are the pros and cons of each?

Slide 99 – The pro of automatic scanning is that there is only one switch hit per selection. This can really reduce the physical/stamina requirements of the activity. The cons of automatic scanning include that it is so slow and that if you miss hitting the switch when the scan is over your selection, the scan restarts from the beginning. Individuals with cerebral palsy and other similar disabilities physically tighten up as the scan gets closer and closer to the desired selection often being too tight to hit the switch when wanted. If the scan is slowed down enough for the individual to not miss the hitting the switch over the desired selection, it is often so slow that the individual loses focus on the activity.

Slide 100 – The pros of step-scanning are speed - you can move the cursor very rapidly by hitting the move switch quickly and you don't have to worry about the scan moving off the selection and missing what you want to select. The cons of step-scanning are the higher energy requirements for all of the switch hits needed to advance the scan.

Slide 101- The computer requires you to be able to see and understand display – if you can't see it you can listen to it.

Slide 102 – Computers started out being entirely text-based. The computer display showed only a line of a text. These computers used a version of DOS (disk operating system) that was entirely text based. Pictured is a screenshot of a dark gray screen with green text.

Slide 103 – With the addition of a speech synthesizer the computer would speak the text on the screen. Pictured is an Echo II speech synthesizer card.

Slide 104 – It was relatively easy to install a speech synthesizer card into an Apple II and then you had a talking computer. Pictured is the Echo Speech Synthesizer with the speaker, computer card, five and one quarter inch floppy and manual.

Slide 105 – A talking computer provided the way for individuals who are blind to get on the information super-highway. While Braille's symbols of eight dots provides a printable alphabet, Brailled books are huge and require a lot of room for storage. Recorded books and magazines – “Talking Books” - provides access to current printed material, but these are not searchable. You have to listen to the entire tape rather than jump to the part you are interested in. Computer files are searchable, don't require large bookshelves, and instant access to others through Bulletin Boards and the Internet.

Slide 106 – The Graphical User Interface which is what we use today was first seen in the first Macs in 1984. The computer was now accessed with a mouse instead of text entry. Pictured is screenshots of multiple windows and menus.

Slide 107 – It was no longer enough to have just a speech synthesizer installed. Software was needed that could read any text tags put with the program icons. This is called screen – reading software.

Slide 108 – The built-in screen reader, “Narrator”, is built into every Windows operating system from XP on. It is found under the Ease of Access tab in Accessories. Pictured is where to find “Narrator”.

Slide 109 – Screen reader software uses keyboard shortcuts to operate them. Pictured is some of the keyboard shortcuts for “Narrator”.

Slide 110 – “NVDA” or Nonvisual Desktop Access is a free screen reading program.

Slide 111 – “JAWS” is one of several excellent commercial screen reading programs. Pictured is a photo of someone using “JAWS”. As all screen reading programs it uses a large number of keyboard shortcuts.

Slide 112 – Pictured is a screen shot of “Window-Eyes”.

Slide 113 – Dyslexia is a print disability like being blind or having a visual impairment. While the individual has vision, their brain does not correctly interpret text.

Slide 114 – Text-to-speech software only reads text within a document or web-page.

Slide 115 – While screen reading software can be used for text-to-speech, it is usually more expensive than text-to-speech alone. Also as screen reading software is global in nature on the computer - hearing every item being read can be very annoying if you don't need it.

Slide 116 – Text-to-speech software is also called reading software.

Slide 117 – Pictured is one of the free text-to-speech or reading programs - “ReadPlease”. Text is copied and then pasted into the “ReadPlease” window. “ReadPlease” has a free version shown here and a low-cost version that costs around fifty dollars. The paid version has more voices available for reading.

Slide 118 – Pictured is the free “Natural Reader”. Text is copied and pasted into the “Natural Reader” window. There is also a low-cost version that has more features and costs around seventy dollars.

Slide 119 – Pictured is “ReadOutloud” by Don Johnston, Inc. It will read any digital text and is often used with Bookshare books. It can read the DAISY format which is searchable by page. The DAISY format was developed for individuals who are blind so that they could access text the way sighted individuals do. With DAISY you can look up page numbers and use the book's index to go to specific topics. Without DAISY you advance the reading material screen by screen.

Slide 120 – “WYNN” is one of several top-end text-to-speech programs. In “WYNN” you can scan in textbooks, encyclopedias, magazine articles and using OCR (optical character recognition) it will read all of it. One great feature of “WYNN” is that it will read the original scanned page or in a modifiable text-only version. When the original page is being read you can see and hear diagrams, maps, and comments under photographs. Pictured is a screen shot of “WYNN” from Freedom Scientific showing it reading the exact image of the original. “WYNN” with scanning capability costs around one thousand dollars.

Slide 121 - What do you do when you can see the computer display, but it is blurry and indistinct? Screen magnification magnifies the computer display. Pictured is an example of screen magnification showing all of the details on the surface of the sphere pictured.

Slide 122 – Screen magnification software has two types. One type magnifies the entire screen at one time and the other only magnifies one part of the screen at one time.

Slide 123 – Pictured is a normal desktop image before magnification.

Slide 124 – Pictured is the magnified portion of the display as it appears on the display. One problem with this type of magnification is that it can be very hard to figure out what you are seeing in relation to the remainder of the computer display. Also error messages and other pop-ups can be hard to find, especially if you don't know they are there.

Slide 125 – The other type of screen magnification only magnifies one portion of the screen while on top of what is being magnified. There is a screen magnifier built into the Windows operating system. The ones built into Windows XP and Vista had limited functionality. The one built into Windows 7 has many more features and works better.

Slide 126 – The amount of magnification is adjustable usually from one and one half times up to sixty times. The free and low-cost programs have much lower magnification than the more expensive full-featured programs.

Slide 127 – Pictured are examples of screen magnification showing two times and four times the normal size.

Slide 128 – Pictured are examples of screen magnification showing four times and eight times the normal size.

Slide 129 – The built-in magnification program of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 is found under the Ease of Access tab of Accessories. “Magnifier” will go up to sixteen times in magnification and can be full-screen, window or docked in one area of the display. Pictured is the menu for “Magnifier”.

Slide 130 - “Magnifying Glass Pro” goes up to one and eight-tenths times in magnification. It has a thirty day free trial and costs around twenty-five dollars. This program is most useful for individuals who have a limited visual impairment and only need a small amount of magnification but would benefit from shading and other graphic enhancements that are available in “Magnifying Glass Pro”. Pictured is the magnification as a window on the display. It is below what it is magnifying.

Slide 131 - “ZoomText” from AI Squared is a full-featured program that goes up to thirty-two times magnification. It also has full-screen, window, or docked in one area of the display possibilities. It costs approximately four hundred dollars. Pictured is full-screen magnification in number one, full-screen with an additional window of another part of the display in number two, and a docked window in number three.

Slide 132 - Pictured is several screen shots of “SuperNova” from Dolphin Computer Access is another full-featured screen magnification program. It magnifies up to sixty times and also has fractional magnification. That is if you need three and three-fourths magnification to fit your display, but four times is too big. “SuperNova” also provides partial magnification – say of just one part of the screen. It cost approximately four hundred dollars.

Slide 133 – Can you use a computer if you can't see or hear? Yes, now that there is a refreshable Braille keyboard. The refreshable Braille keyboard is not for text entry, rather it tactilely displays what the computer display shows. Pictured is someone using a refreshable Braille keyboard just below a standard keyboard.

Slide 134 – A refreshable Braille keyboard can vary in length from twenty Braille cells to forty Braille cells. Each cell is made up of eight pins that individually rise or lower to make each Braille letter or contraction. As an individual runs their hands along the top of the keyboard they feel each Braille cell and can read what the computer has on its display. Unfortunately refreshable Braille keyboards are very expensive – around four thousand dollars, but to provide access to information and all of the other uses of computers, it is priceless. Pictured is a close-up of a refreshable Braille keyboard.

Slide 135 – This presentation has been prepared by Kathy Griffin who is an Assistive Technology Professional. January, two thousand eleven.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download