Lately, I’ve been sent on several consults to help configure Macs for visual impairments. In general, most of my visually impaired clients are at a “legally blind” status but do have some sight. These clients are battling either slow or rapid changes in their vision and are looking for ways to still get the most out of their computer without going so far as to use braille devices or external magnifiers.
One key thing to remember is that when it comes to visual impairments there is no one-size-fits-all solution. That said, let’s discuss some common adjustments that can be made to help one get the most from their Mac despite vision issues. I’ll be using 10.6.2 for these examples, but many of these functions exist in earlier operating systems.
While making adjustments I think it’s vital the visually impaired friend/relative/client that you’re working with is right by your side so each change can be adjusted to their liking. It’s also important to take the time to explain each step so there’s an educational aspect to the setup so that when minor adjustments need to be made in the future, the client is empowered to make those changes.
The first step is to open System Preferences and then Displays. If one of the complaints is that the text on the screen is too small, lowering the resolution can help make everything appear bigger without actually using magnification. The downside is that the more resolution is diminished the blockier things get.
However, on larger monitors, such as Apple’s newest 27-inch iMac, sticking with a mid-range resolution that’s still in the proper aspect ratio for the display (i.e. 1024×768) normally is a happy compromise between sharp text that is so small it’s unreadable and large blocky text that is too out-of-focus. Brightness can also be adjusted in this preference pane, or you can use the brightness hot keys on the keyboard (i.e. F1 and F2).
The next step is to go back to System Preferences and then to Universal Access. Make sure you’re in the ‘Seeing’ tab. The first adjustment I usually make in here is to ‘Enhance contrast’. Often times the coloring on the screen is too flat for those who are visually impaired. Increasing the contrast will make the blacks blacker and wash out lighter colors. So, instead of having dark grey text on a light grey background, one can achieve closer to black text on a white background which is much easier to read.
There are also options to use grayscale, which can be helpful for some clients. I also like to show the difference between the ‘Black on white’ option and the ‘White on black’ as some clients, especially those with more acute vision issues, can read the white text on a black background easier than black text on white. Generally, those who go for that adjustment also prefer the screen to be in grayscale as ‘White on black’ inverts all colors on screen which can be confusing to some.
Zoom will be your visually impaired client’s best friend as long as they have a mouse or trackpad that supports scrolling. With zoom turned on, all you need to do to scroll is to press control while scrolling. Scrolling in zooms into the screen and scrolling out zooms out. This is a very easy way to zoom-on-the-fly. Some of my clients like to leave the screen zoomed in and they can navigate around the screen with their mouse. The only thing to consider if you do leave the screen zoomed in all the time is that there could be things open on your screen that you’re not able to see so it can create more of a hassle to scroll the mouse around the screen looking for hidden windows.
The last feature I always like to visit is VoiceOver. Now, for those with less severe visual impairments, VoiceOver can end up adding more confusion than is necessary. However, for those who need VoiceOver it can be a major blessing. Apple has a great guide to VoiceOver which I highly recommend to anyone getting started with it.
The basic idea is that it is a fully customizable utility that will read text on the screen as well as offer navigation options. For those working with blind clients this is also where you can go to set up the Mac for use with Braille as well as other commanders and external peripherals. To play with the features of VoiceOver, simply click on ‘Open VoiceOver Utility’ located in the Universal Access pane.
I hope you enjoy exploring all the ways your Mac can be catered to work for you!