Alternative Google Color Schemes

Following up on my earlier post about the lack of accessible Vista themes and my current feelings on standard internet color schemes, I posted the following to the accessible Google Group: Alternative Google Color Schemes - accessible | Google Groups

For the visually impaired, Google's (as well as MS and most websites) color scheme is downright bad. Does Google have or could it develop an alternative accessible co or scheme? Not only should it be high contrast, but also light-on-dark. For me, I like yellow-on-black. Firefox and IE allow users to impose color schemes while browsing, but this method changes all text and background to the same two colors. This ruins the full use of each page. For example, in Gmail, the star feature becomes useless.For another, regular text and hyperlinks become indistinguishable. So this solution is only partial. This remains true for other websites and for Windows as well. Both Vista and XP have high-contrast color schemes, but there are both aesthetically unappealing (Visually impaired does not equal aesthetically unaware) and more problematic then helpful. Is this something that Google could/will implement? Is this something a third-party could do well? There are some third party tools (e.g. Firefox's Accessibar), but none are subtle enough to retain the full nature of each web page. Is anyone up for the challenge? Thanks! PS Can someone create a nice Vista/XP theme with accessible and aesthetic colors and font sizes

I will relay any useful responses.

Accessible Windows Vista Themes

As I noted in the last post, I have just moved to a Windows Vista machine. I have spent the last few days looking for a decent theme with large fonts and good light-on-dark contrast. There are none!

The Windows high contrast themes, besides being hideous, do not have large text. To check these out, you can either right-click on the desktop and select 'Personalize' and then to 'Windows Colors and Appearance' or go to the 'Ease of Access Center' Control Panel and then to 'Set Up High Contrast'. Either way, you are stuck with an ugly interface with the small font. The 'Ease of Access Center' has an option for changing something called DPI to make the font easier to read, but that only goes so far.

I checked out the trial version of WindowBlinds, but I could not easily find any accessible themes. After a frustrating few minutes with the software, I sent an email to the company who sells it, asking them if WindowBlinds offeres any accessible themes.

In the end, I spent a good chunk of time adjusting all the color and font settings in the 'Windows Colors and Appearance' panel. After a few mistakes and having to start from scratch a few times, I succeeded in creating and saving a minimally acceptable theme. It is not professional in the least. My next job is to figure out how to export and share it with you. For now, email me if you would like a copy.

Do you know of any useful themes? Do you know someone who can create one? Let me know!

High Contrast and Dark-on-Light Windows

Rather than sharing a particular software trick in this post, I will share some wisdom from one of my eye doctors, Gerald Friedman. First, let me point out the obvious (something so obvious I could not find it discussed anywhere online). The better the contrast is, the easier it is on the eye. Finding ways to improve contrast on the computer will strongly reduce eye strain. The idea that Dr. Friedman shared with me was that contrast doea not need to be dark text on a light background. He pointed out that most computer applications follow the same style as printed text showing dark text on light, usually white, background. Just because books are published this why, however, does not mean that is the best way for us to read text. Books publish black text on white paper to lower production costs by using less ink. Since computer monitors do not care which color they display, it makes sense to rethink the how computer display text. So, I recommend doing two things. The first is to set your computer to display light-on-dark and to see if you like it. The second is, if the first does not work for you, is to suggest changing the background color to something other than white. You can keep a high level of contrast, without the eye-straining brightness of white screens. To change Windows XP display to high contrast, go to the Control Panel and select Accessibility Options. Click on the Display tab and check the High Contrast box. If you do not want the high contrast option, you can change the white background to another color by doing the following. Go to the Control Panel and open Display. Click on the Appearance tab and then click the Advanced button. On the Item list menu, select Window. Click on the box below Color 1 and choose another color. Then click on OK and then OK again. This process can be reversed by repeating these steps except choosing white in the Color 1 box. I will follow this post up with more ways to implement higher contrast and light-on-dark settings in various programs.

Increasing Font Size

Increasing the font size in the way I describe here is a small, though useful, step towards making the computer easier to see. This procedure will enlarge the fonts on your desktop, such as the names of icons, and the fonts in used in the Taskbar and dialog boxes. It does not affect the fonts used on websites or in files. We will address these other issues in another post. To increase the font size in Windows XP, you need to access the Control Panel and open up the Display Properties. Once there, click on the Appearance tab. This should be the third tab from the left. On the bottom left, you should now see a drop down menu labeled Font size. Try out different font sizes by choosing one (Normal, Large or Extra Large) and clicking on the Apply button. When you are happy with the font size, click on the OK button. For earlier versions of Windows, the process is just a little more difficult. When you open the Appearance tab, you need to select each object, such as icon, and choose a font size. For OS X, the process is similar using the System Preferences. Let me know if you have any questions.

Decreasing your display resolution

Changing your display resolution has both pros and cons. The pros include larger desktop icons with larger text for the operating system, incuuding the Taskbar (in Windows) or the Dock (in OS X). Lower display resolutions only affect the operating system and not the applications you use, so Internet Explorer, for example, won't display larger font sizes. The main con is that not all software is designed to work on low resolution setting, meaning that occasionally windows will extend beyond the edge of the screen. Fortunately, this issue does not occur frequesntly and is easy to rectify by restoring the original display resolution. You can access your display resolution settings by accessing the Desplay Properties in the Control Panel (for Windows - see the System Preferences on a Mac). When you have the Display Properties window open, click on the 'Settings' tab. There will be a sliding bar called 'screen resolution' on the left side. Move the marker to the left, towards 'less' resoltion. then click 'Apply' and see how you like the changes. It is very easy to change it back by following these same steps (excpet moving the marker towards 'more' resoltion). I recommend testing different display resolutions to see what fits your needs best.