Information Technology

In this, the information age, it is imperative that blind and visually impaired people, alongside their sighted peers, can navigate that “global village”. This is achieved by means of text to speech screen readers or magnification technology for those with residual vision. Software by the acronym JAWS (job access with speech) from Freedom Scientific and HAL for the totally blind, together with Super Nova and Lunar, which are magnification software packages from Dolphin Systems, enable individuals access to information presented globally via the net. Another text to speech screen reader is that of Windoweyes. While text to speech software speaks out what is written on screen, the partially sighted can modify the screen to suit individual needs. Example, enlarge text, change colour of screen, change look of mouse pointer, alter the resolution and reverse the contrast. Similarly with OCR software, (Optical character recognition) one can read printed matter by scanning material into computer via flat bed scanner.

There are a plethora of IT devices on the market to suit all tastes. These include Braille and type and speak note-takers, stand alone reading machines and Video magnifiers, to mention but a few. But what is a Video magnifier? This is a close circuit TV (CCTV) that enables people with some useful vision to read independently. Placing material under a camera can produce large text, images and maps. This is displayed on television screen or on computer monitor to the suitability of individual.

The Franklin Dictionary with thesaurus is another very useful stand-alone device and easy to use. It has a querty keyboard, which most people can navigate around. On entering word, the dictionary selects a number of possible likenesses. One then arrows up and down until they find the correct word for which they are looking and then enters to find meaning.

Learning objectives It is possible to modify how the screen looks and make the text larger, change the colour, change how the mouse pointer looks, alter the resolution and Reverse the contrast. There are various desktop settings and accessibility features in Windows, which enable some partially sighted people to access the Computer adequately without purchasing expensive magnification software. For further information on how to do this, have a look at the My Computer My Way website published by AbilityNet.