Screen Magnifiers for the Vision Impaired
Mon Sep 4, 2006 6:00PM EDT
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For anyone with limited sight or blindness, the web can be a daunting place, but there are technologies available to make the web more accessible for those with vision problems.
Two of the most basic tools are screen magnifiers and screen readers. Magnifiers work like electronic magnifying glasses, enlarging the screen or some portion of the screen. Screen readers convert the text on screen to the spoken word.
Magnifiers tend to be relatively inexpensive and are recommended for those with low or partial vision. The key features of a good screen magnifier are some flexibility in the amount of magnification, the fonts are legible and crisp at larger magnifications, and elements like the cursor are magnified, too. Most magnifiers work well with the more text based web sites, but stumble when there are lots of graphics and multimedia elements on screen.
Here are a few worth looking into.
ZoomText Magnifier is from Ai Squared, a company specializing in products for the vision impaired. It also offers a text reader program. The magnifier is filled with features like the ability to do magnifications from 1x to 36x, eight different zoom views, the ability to change screen colors, and a technology that reduces the pixelation of the text. It costs $400 and includes fractional powers of 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, and 2.5x.
Lunar is from Dolphin, makers of accessibility software. The Lunar magnifier has a downloadable trial and supports the same options as ZoomText.
iZoom, a less expensive screen magnifier at $79, offers slightly less powerful magnification (1x to 16x) and six zoom modes. It also works with Mozilla Firefox.
Lightning's magnifier, similar to iZoom, works from 1x to 16x and costs under $100. The company says it will magnify video as well.
To read up on magnifiers and see ratings of products, you can visit magnifiers.org. Or visit VisionConnection, created by Lighthouse International; they maintain a list of adaptive technologies.
Let's look at screen readers next.
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2 Posted by ytech_robinraskin on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:58PM EDT Report Abuse
Thanks for pointing out the information on Microsoft's Magnifier. By Microsoft's own admission the Windows Magnifier is ok for people with minimal vision impairment. But if you've tried to use it, you know that it can be a trying experience. It creates a separate magnified Window and even at 2x magnfication the type if very jaggedy. Plus it does not work well with many of the media heavy sites. It's worth checking out (and maybe Vista will do it better). As for the tools in IE.. the Zoom or Text Size options can also do funny things to your screen. I'm using Zoom while posting this comment right now and I've got the Yahoo menus all overlapping my content Window. That said, if you need to see larger text, it, too, is worth a try and certainly improves a low vision situation.
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3 Posted by gargy1973 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:06PM EDT Report Abuse
This sounds like a wonderfull program for the viusally impared. I am sure it works every bit the way it says. I have one problem though. Is everyone aware that if you have windows xp on your computer that it does the same thing. And it doesnt cost you anything. So can someone help me to understand why anyone would pay that much money for something that is available for free. Maybe there is a big difference that i dont get. Please help me out R.c.
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4 Posted by norman_b_robinson on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:41PM EDT Report Abuse
gargy1973, the big difference is the build-in function of magnification in the web browser isn't magnification; it enlarges the content that can be scaled in; this is designed into how the web browser works. With robust magnifiers you get color and contrast control, pop-to or focus controls (try using a computer when you can only view something the size of a quarter; when the computer steals focus or flashes something it is difficult to use). Also the read assistive technology magnifiers work hard to make things usable when the equivalent of a real-world magnifier wouldn't work; by getting text information from the operating system, reading some text aloud, and having application specific support (MS Office for instance) where a generic magnifier wouldn't work. You can learn more by searching for assistive technology on the web.
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5 Posted by veracron on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:33PM EDT Report Abuse
On another note, the price for the Lightning screen magnifier is not under $100. It is 100 pounds + tax, which comes to about $200.
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1 Posted by alex.sandrey on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:50PM EDT Report Abuse
There are a couple of options for screen magnification without having to pay anything! On windows XP under "all programs | accessories | accessibility | Magnifier This magnifies everything in the windows environment not just web browsers. Alterntivly, The new Internet Explorer (IE7) has an inbuilt magnifier (they just call it 'zoom'). This is by no means the only browser that has this zoom function! Another such browser is opera. For those who don't know this one of the many free alterntives to Internet Explorer. In short, while those mentioned in the article may have more features than 'free' software the ability to magnify doesn't have to cost you anything! Chances are, you've already got it!