Chapter 16: Accessibility Options

Setting Display Accessibility Options

Windows has four features that make the screen easier to read: a high-contrast color scheme, configurable cursor appearance, Magnifier (which can magnify part of the screen), and Narrator (which reads the screen out loud).

Other display settings--including colors and fonts--are available on the Display Properties dialog box.

Displaying in High Contrast

High Contrast changes the Windows color scheme and increases legibility wherever possible, often by increasing font sizes. Not every program uses font sizes controlled by Windows, so not everything on the screen gets bigger. You control High Contrast from the Display tab of the Accessibility Options dialog box, shown in Figure 16-3. Choose Start | Control Panel | Accessibility Options, run the Accessibility Options icon, and click the Display tab.

Figure 16-3: Turn on the High Contrast option by using the Display tab of the Accessibility Options dialog box.

Turn on the High Contrast feature by clicking the Use High Contrast check box. Click the Settings button to turn on the Use Shortcut setting, which enables you to turn High Contract on or off by pressing LEFT ALT-LEFT-SHIFT-PRINT SCREEN (that is, hold down the ALT and SHIFT keys that appear on the left side of the keyboard near the X and Z keys, and also press the PRINT SCREEN button). You can also choose a color scheme.

When High Contrast is on, your screen looks like Figure 16-4--the High Contrast White (Large) color scheme is shown. (High Contrast Black is the default, but the white version is more readable when printed in this book.) Using bigger fonts results in less information fitting on the screen, so you see more scroll bars than usual. Also, the different color scheme may take some getting used to.

Figure 16-4: The desktop and Windows Explorer in High Contrast

Controlling the Cursor's Size and Blink Rate

The Display tab of the Accessibility dialog box (shown in Figure 16-3) also contains the Cursor Blink Rate and Cursor Width settings. Move the sliders to control how quickly the cursor blinks and how wide it appears on the screen.

Magnifying the Screen

The Magnifier is an alternative to High Contrast mode--it enables you to magnify only a part of the screen at a time. One section of the screen (usually a strip along the top of the screen) shows a highly magnified version of one area of the screen--the area where you are working.

Turn on Magnifier by choosing Start | All Programs | Accessories | Accessibility | Magnifier. (From the keyboard, press WINDOWS or CTRL-ESC to display the Start menu, press R to choose Run, type magnify, and press ENTER.) Windows displays an explanatory message the first time you run Magnifier: Click the Do Not Show This Message Again check box after you've read it, and click OK. You see the magnification window at the top of your screen and the Magnifier Settings dialog box, as shown in Figure 16-5.

Figure 16-5: The Magnifier dialog box and the Magnification window at the top of the screen

You can control the magnification level, which part of the screen is displayed in the magnification window, its color scheme, and its location on the screen:

• Magnification Level Determines how much larger things appear in the magnification window. Use the Magnification Level setting on the Magnifier Settings dialog box. The larger the level, the more the contents of the magnification window are magnified.
• Tracking Determines what part of the screen is shown in the magnification window. You can choose to Follow Mouse Cursor, Follow Keyboard Focus, and Follow Text Editing. These three options are not mutually exclusive--if you select all three, the display in the magnification window is determined by what you are currently doing--in other words, Windows does its best to display the part of the screen you're working with in the magnification window.
• Colors Controls colors in the magnification window. Click the Invert Colors check box to use the opposite of the colors in the rest of the screen. Inverted colors make it easier to see that the magnification window is a special part of the screen, but they may also make the display more confusing.
• Size and Location You can change the size of the magnification window by dragging the lower window border up or down. You can change the position of the window by clicking inside the window and dragging. You can "dock" the window along any edge of the desktop or put it somewhere in the middle of the screen. If the magnification window appears as a window rather than a wide border, you can control its size and position in the same way you'd change them for any window. Your ideal magnification window may be a small square near one corner of the screen. The magnification window always appears on top--it cannot be covered by another window.

When you have adjusted the settings in the Magnifier Settings dialog box, click its Minimize button to shrink it to a button on the taskbar. (You may want to select the Start Minimized check box first, to tell Windows to minimize the Magnifier Settings dialog box whenever you start Magnifier.) Don't click Exit unless you want to stop seeing the magnification window on your screen. You can redisplay the Magnifier Settings dialog box by right-clicking the magnification window and choosing Options from the shortcut menu or by clicking its button on the taskbar. Close the magnification window by closing the Magnifier Settings dialog box or by right-clicking the magnification window and choosing Exit.

Deselect the Show Magnifier check box to turn off the magnification window temporarily; click it again to display the window again.

Listening to Microsoft Narrator Read the Screen Out Loud

For vision-impaired users, a screen-reader can be the best way to find out what's on the computer display. Windows XP comes with a rudimentary screen reading program called Microsoft Narrator. Narrator is designed to work with most parts of Windows XP itself, but may not work with other programs. The program says the items in the active window, including text, buttons, lists, and other things, using a computer-generated voice.

To start it, choose Start | All Programs | Accessories | Accessibility | Narrator. (From the keyboard, press WINDOWS or CTRL-ESC to display the Start menu, press R to choose Run, type narrator, and press ENTER.) Read (or listen to) the explanatory dialog box, select the Do Not Show This Message Again check box, and click OK. You see (and hear) the Narrator dialog box, shown here:

You can control these aspects of narrator from the Narrator dialog box:

• Voice Click the Voice button to choose which pre-programmed voice to use and how fast, high, and loud the voice speaks.
• What to read Select the Announce Events On Screen check box to hear when something changes on the screen and the Read Typed Characters check box to hear what you type.
• Mouse movement Select the Move Mouse Pointer To The Active Item check box to make the mouse pointer follow the "focus" (that is, what item on the screen is active).

You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts with Narrator:

Keyboard Shortcut Action CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER Hear information about the active item. CTRL-SHIFT-INSERT Hear details about the active item. CTRL-SHIFT-SPACEBAR Hear all the information in the active window. ALT-HOME Hear the title bar of the active window. ALT-END Hear the status bar of the active window. (This feature does not work for all programs). CTRL Silence the Narrator.

Once you have Narrator configured as you like it, select the Start Narrator Minimized check box in the Narrator dialog box to minimize it in future. Also take a look at "Useful Keyboard Shortcuts" sidebar in this chapter.

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts If you prefer using the keyboard to the mouse, you may want to try the following key combinations, which many but not all programs support: ALT-SPACEBAR Displays the system menu, from which you can choose to close, minimize, restore, maximize, or move the current window. ALT-F4 Closes the current program. ALT-TAB or TAB Switches to another running program. Keep pressing TAB or ALT-TAB to cycle through all the programs that are running. CTRL-C Copies the selected information to the Clipboard. CTRL-V Copies the current contents of the Clipboard to the current position of the cursor. CTRL-A Selects all the information in the window. CTRL-F4 Closes the current window. CTRL-W performs the same task in some programs. SHIFT-F10 Displays the shortcut menu (the same menu you would see if you right-clicked at the current position of the mouse). ESC Cancels the current dialog box (the same as clicking the Cancel button). ENTER Click the currently selected button. WINDOWS or CTRL-ESC Displays the Start menu. WINDOWS-L Locks the computer. WINDOWS-U Displays the Utility Manager.