Stanza - Accessible E-Book Reader for the iPhone

Scanning through the Personal Tech section of the Times, I bumped into an interesting tidbit, "Tip of the Week - Turn Your iPhone Into an e-Book - NYTimes.com". I have an iPod Touch (the iPhone sans phone), so I ws intrigued, though remaining skeptical, by this tip. I just downloaded the app, Stanza, to my iPod and fell in love. On a technical level, it is a perfect application of accessibility for a visually impaired user. The font sizes can be adjusted with a very wide range. You can select font and background colors with a wide selection of choices, not just a simple reverse color scheme option. The screen rotates with the iPod, so you can read it landscape with the larger text. Pages can be turned with a simple flick on the screen. Best of all, it retains your choice of settings. I could not be happier with the accessibility.

Now I have to download the desktop version and hope that there are interesting e-books to read . . .

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.

Setting up Lignt-on-Dark Contrast for PDFs

Adobe Reader 7.0 allows users to change the coloers used to display PDF files. If you go to the Edit menu and select Preferences, you will see a new indow with a list of options on the left. Select Accessibility and you will see the following window. Check the Replace Document Colors box and select the Use High-Contrast Colors option. I recomend the yellow-text-on-black setting. Adobe has other accessibilty features that I will highlight in other posts.