iPod Shuffle review - "Now all can shuffle"

The New Straits Times, Malaysia News Online, has a review of the accessibility of the new iPod shuffle. It seems like a great choice for those who can't (or don't like to) read the screens that these devices come with. Since the iPod functions without a screen with a 'minimalist' user interface, the iPod Shuffle avoids, however unintentionally, the barriers posed by most MP3 players. Read the article, Now all can shuffle, for details.

SeniorNet: A Resource for Older Eyes

My web wanderings uncovered another interesting resource out there. Called SeniorNet, this website is aimed at older computer users.

SeniorNet's mission is to provide older adults education for and access to computer technologies to enhance their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom.

Since eyesight can deteriorate with age, SeniorNet has a resource page, Technology: Tutorials & Demos, with tips on accessibility options.

The Terrible Typist

I am a terrible typist. Despite the years of training and years of typing, I still need to watch the keyboard when I type. For some of us terrible typists, watching the keyboard doesn't always help. Letter labels on each key fade with use. (My keyboard has almost completely lost E, A and S.) For many aesthetically-designed keyboards, these are already too small to read. There is a s solution. There are several, in fact. First, you could dish out some serious money and buy a new, large-print keyboard. These can be expensive and are usually designed without even a slight nod to aesthetics. A less radical solution is to use large print keyboard stickers (sometimes called labels or overlays). These stickers, which are hard to find in stores, but are readily available online, often come in several high-contrast styles, white on black, black on white and black on yellow. [I am still looking for my preference, which is yellow on black.] These stickers are also quite affordable, running between ten and fifteen dollars. A Seattle based non-profit agency, Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted, has an online store, SightConnection, which has Large Print Keyboard Stickers for sale for $12.50.

Patients get Solar Implants in Eyes

Slashdot, the News for Nefds site, has a story, Patients get Solar Implants in Eyes, about a promising treatment for some kinds of severe vision loss. The Slashdot report includes an interesting discussion and link to the original new source.

Boston Globe "Adapting PCs to an aging population"

Hiawatha Bray had a great column, Adapting PCs to an aging population, last Monday that captures the spirit behind this blog. I hope that the ideas that I post here will be helpful for everyone who has trouble using the compute. As Mr. Bray says;

Take a good look at the words on your computer screen. They may be smaller and harder to read than they were a year ago -- and if not, they someday will be.

Adobe Reader's "Enhancing On-Screen Viewing

As a supplement to some of my previous posts, here is a link to Adobe's suggestions for Enhancing On-Screen Viewing. This includes discussion of reflowing, use of the full screen option an other accessibility features. The page describes Adobe Reader 6.0, but appears to apply equally to the latest version.

Internet Explorer: Increasing Font Size

For Internet Explorer (IE), click on Text Size in the View menu and select the appropriate size. Try out different sizes. In general, I choose Largest, but this can cause some web sites to display incorrectly. You will see when this happens if lines of text overlap each other, becoming unreadable. If this happens, reset the font size to something smaller and the problem should disappear.

The advantage here over Firefox is that IE will remember your font size preferences while Firefox does not. The drawback for IE is that there are only five font sizes to choose from, while Firefox has no limit.

Here is a link to Microsoft's instructions: Step by Step Tutorials for Internet Explorer 6: Increase or Decrease the Font Size of Web Pages Displayed on Screen.

Firefox Tip: Increase Font Size

To follow up on my last post, I thought I would show the ways to increase font size in Firefox. The first way is to select Text Size from the View menu, then click on Increase Font Size on the submenu that appears. For me, I need to increase the font size substantially, so I have to repeat this process several times. Fortunately, there is a trick that makes this process simpler. While holding the Control (CTRL) button down, I repeatedly press the + button until I find the right size. [Note: this is often written as CTRL-+.] If I go too far, then pressing Control and - will reverse this process and shrink the font.

Firefox vs. Internet Explorer: Accessibility

Firefox is a recently released alternative to Internet Explorer. Firefox is open source, meaning that Firefox and its underlying computer code are publicly available for free. It has a reputation for better security (less viruses, etc.) and better adherence to WWW standards (websites display more nicely).

In terms of ease of access, I find that both Firefox and IE have different problems, meaning that when one displays a page incorrectly, the other will probably display it correctly. So I go between the two programs depending on which sites I am looking at.

Sites like CNN and Netflix do not appear properly in IE for me, so I use Firefox for them. However, I like to keep several windows open at once. IE remembers my text size preferences when opening new windows. Firefox does not, so I have to increase the font size each time I open a new tab or a new window.

To sum up, I recommend using them both, switching between them when sites do not appear properly in one.