Devon County Council

Some resources, advice and helpful software:

Microsoft Disability Resource Guides:

These on-line Guides can be useful guides on how to make full use of some of the hidden features of Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP; also some of the popular programs such as WORD. These accessibility aids can include:

• making your cursor bigger
• enlarging icons
• choosing high contrast colour schemes
  or
• replacing computer sounds with blinking title bars

and much more. Well worth exploring:

• For people with a visual impairment - and a separate link for the text-only version.
• For people with a hearing impairment

AbilityNet:

AbilityNet's site is very helpful if you have a disability and you're new to computers or considering using one. It has good, basic advice on how to adapt and adjust operating systems and programs to help solve many of the difficulties many computers present to disabled people. Some of the solutions are low cost or free and some overlap with the Microsoft Disability Resource Guides mentioned above, some don't. Most of the solutions relate only to personal computers rather than Macs or other machines and mostly to Microsoft programs and browsers.

AbilityNet is a charitable organisation with 'Assessment Centres' willing to offer free advice and assessments to individuals.

There are also Factsheets and Skillsheets which can be downloaded free from AbilityNet together with the special reader "Adobe Acrobat Reader" if you don't already have this on your machine.

Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB):

The RNIB have Technology Factsheets with very useful information including Accessing the Internet, Buying Equipment and Screen Magnification software.

Magnifying Program:

If you use Windows 95 and therefore don't have any magnifying options available, have a look at Virtual Magnifier Glass. It's a free, very small program that can magnify parts of the screen from 2x to 16x. Virtual Magnifying Glass works with later versions of Windows too.

pwWebSpeak:

As the name suggests this is an internet browser designed for users who need to access the Internet using speech only or a combination of speech and vision. It's free to individuals and can be downloaded from the SoundLinks website.

One Format

It's possible using Internet Explorer to override the size of the text shown on any web page, and to also change the colour of the page background to one you prefer. You use your own 'style sheet'. Well, that's fine if you know what a style sheet is and know how to make one! This One Format website lets you find what's best for your eyes, then makes you a style sheet on the site and takes you through how to set this up on your computer so that every web page you look at in the future uses the size of text, and colour of background that you find the best.

PhoneAnything

Using PhoneAnything allows you to hear a webpage read out by an electronic text reader using either a conventional telephone or a mobile one. The service is free to use and the only cost is for the telephone call. For a demonstration of how the PhoneAnything system reads web pages go to: http://www.phoneanything.com/vptest.htm.

Full instructions on how to use the PhoneAnything to access web pages can be found at: http://www.phoneanything.com/vpweb.htm#Navigating